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BY 



JOHNIMERLYMVMFORD 







. : . Ji if ■ . - .:■ f J 



NEW-YORK 

CHARLES • SCRIBNER'S -50NS 

MDCCCCII 



THE UBHARV Of 

CONQHESS, 
Tw Cu*u- RtoamD 

P£C. * T<W> 

OLAfifl *^XXo No. 

//-} Vf J 
oonr B. 



Copyright, 1900, 1902, by 
Charles Scribner's Sons. 

All rights reserved. 







PREFACE 

T^E volume here presented goes, the first, into a field 
as empty as it is extensive. It is the result of several 
years' study, and the author hopes that it will serve 
well the purpose which prompted its creation. 

The maker of books of this sort is, after all, only a 
weaver. The sum of what he can accomplish is to produce 
a fabric sound, thorough in workmanship, grateful in design, 
and true in color. If it shall prove serviceable, survive the 
effects of wear and time, and perform throughout its term of 
endurance some office of aesthetic gratification as well, that 
is about all the weaver can hope for. His first concern, it 
would seem, is firm foundation. The warp and weft of fact 
are paramount. These the writer has sought assiduously, 
wherever they were to be found, including, naturally, the 
mysterious, contradictory East. It is only in the Orient, 
where these rugs are born, — that Orient which does not 
know itself or its neighbor, scarcely its resplendent past and 
certainly not its enigmatical future, — that one can understand 
how complex, how interlaced, how confused and confusing, 
is the subject which the writer has here attempted to systema- 



PREFACE 

tize and present in comprehensive form. Only there does 
one see clearly why the labor was not undertaken long ago. 

Out of the years spent in the work little time has been 
devoted to the fanciful or imaginative side of the subject. 
Its poesy and romance have been in a measure accepted as 
corollaries, assumed as among the reasons for the book's 
existence, and, therefore, perhaps neglected in the presenta- 
tion. To those who have already come under the spell of 
the Eastern weavings this will not be felt as a lack. What 
of color has been distributed through these pages is of 
more moment to those who are still groping in the dark 
belief that rugs are — merely rugs. If too little of tingent 
has been employed, it is because the fabrics themselves, 
properly understood, provide it in plenty — far better than 
can any vocabulary or any thesaurus of poetic imagery. If 
foundation shall here have been laid for that understanding, 
the work will have been well done, and the worker will be 
content. 

Acknowledgment should be made of contributions to 
the book and whatever of service it may render. From Mr. 
A. C. Denotovich was received much light upon Eastern 
life and manners, together with energetic cooperation in the 
collection and classification of technical details. His famil- 
iarity with the peoples and languages of the Orient, as well 
as with the various weavings, was of inestimable value dur- 
ing the author's sojourn in the countries where rugs are 
made. 

Many facts regarding the Persian textiles were had from 



PREFACE 

Mr. Hildebrand Stevens of Tabriz, and, upon the subject of 
Caucasian and Turkoman fabrics, from Mr. James C. Cham- 
bers, United States Consul at Batoum, Russia. 

In making the examinations requisite to accuracy it has 
been necessary, in this country, to resort to large trade col- 
lections, where many rugs of each variety could from time 
to time be compared. For such privilege the author is under 
obligation to Mr. L. B. Searing of W. & J. Sloane ; Mr. W. 
Mansell Daintry and Mr. J. L. Parker of Arnold, Constable 
& Company ; Mr. A. C. Van Gaasbeek of Van Gaasbeek 
and Arkell; Mr. F. B. Proctor of Gulbenkian & Company; 
Mr. A. H. Campbell of Wild & Company ; Mr. W. H. Banta 
of the Oriental Rug Company ; and Mr. A. Blumberg of 
Tellery & Company, Amritsar, India. 

One further word of thanks must be said. Knowledge 
of rugs is best gained by the eye. Rug owners who have 
lent pieces for illustration have therefore added to the volume 
an element most essential to its usefulness. 

•With these comments the book is offered, in the desire 
that it may lead to a clearer knowledge of the subject, and 
stimulate a more exacting taste among patrons of an art 
industry which merits a better fate than to be perverted or 
destroyed. 

New York, November 15, 1900. 



PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION 

THE belief, expressed when this volume first appeared, 
that there was need for it, seems to have found justi- 
fication. Both the earlier editions were exhausted 
within a few months after publication; upon the first, indeed, 
collectors and dealers placed a three-fold value before half 
a year was past. 

In the preparation of the present edition for the press, cir- 
cumstances have made necessary a change in the illustrative 
scheme. The color plates, which, in the preceding issues, 
met with such general approbation, had become unfit for 
further use, at least mechanically unproductive of results such 
as proper illustration of the book required. For the making 
of new plates it would have been difficult, even if it had been 
desirable, to bring together all the rugs previously used. New 
selections have therefore been made, which, it is believed, will 
serve even better the broad purpose involved. A wholly new 
color series is thus presented. 

By permission of the executors of the estate of the late 
Henry G. Marquand, five rugs from the collection made by 
that gentleman have been taken as subjects for color 
plates. Some of these ancient carpets are not to be ex- 



PREFACE 

celled, either in artistic quality or in rarity, by any fabrics 
to be found in the royal or public collections of the Old 
World, and that they can be shown here as examples of the 
weaver's work in a time when the East was greatest in wealth, 
power and artistic development, should be to the reader, as it 
assuredly is to the author, a source of great satisfaction. Ad- 
mirable translation of the inscriptions in the chief of the Mar- 
quand pieces has been made by Dr. Richard J. H. Gottheil, 
of Columbia University. 

Two pieces, which appeared as artotypes in the original 
book, are now reproduced in color, a promotion of which both 
are eminently worthy. 

So far as the book has borne upon the rug industry there 
is apparent no change of condition sufficient to demand 
serious modification of what has been said, save, perhaps, in 
the case of the Indian weavings, in which, as is plainly enough 
remarked in the text, constant betterment has been visible from 
the day when American firms began to control labor in that 
weed-grown field of manufacture. 

The writer cannot conclude this small foreword without 
expressing profound personal pleasure that the work, offered 
at the first with desire that it might be a means of uplift as well 
as of diversion, has been received with such unfailing favor, 
from those best qualified to sit in judgment. 

New York, October i, 1902. 



CONTENTS 



Chapter I 


Introduction . 


Page i 


Chapter II 


History . 


Page 1 1 


Chapter III 


The Rug-weaving Peoples . 


Page 2 1 


Chapter IV 


Materials . 


• Page 33 


Chapter V . 


Dyers and Dyes 


Page 42 


Chapter VI 


Design 


. Page 56 


Chapter VII . 


Weaving 


Page 80 


Chapter VIII 


. Classification 


. Page 98 


Chapter IX . 


Caucasian 


Page 10 1 


Chapter X 


Turkish . 


. Page 132 


Chapter XI . 


. Persian 


Page 160 


Chapter XII 


Turkoman 


. Page 226 



Chapter XIII 
Chapter XIV 



CONTENTS 

. Khilims 
Indian . 



Page 246 
Page 252 



Textile Tables 
Index . 



Page 268 
Page 269 



MAPS 



(1) Asia Minor and the Caucasian Region 

(2) The Asiatic Rug-producing Countries 



At end 
of volume 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



REPRODUCTIONS OF RUGS 



COLOR PLATES AND ARTOTYPES 



Plate I Royal Persian Rug, Fifteenth 
Century .... 

Plate II Lesghian Strip of the Caucasus 

Plate III Kazak Rug 

Plate IV Baku Rug .... 

Plate V Bergamo Rug 

Plate VI Antique Silk Persian Rug 

Plate VII Shirvan Rug . 

PlateVIII Kurdish Rug .... 

Plate IX Old Kirman Rug 



Color Plate iii 

Color Plate 8 

Color Plate 24 

. Artotype 32 

Color Plate 4° 

Color Plate $6 

A rtotype 64 

Color Plate J2 

Color Plate 88 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Plate X Saruk Sedjadeh . 

Plate XI Ispahan Carpet, Sixteenth 
Century 

Plate XII Old Sirab Rug . 

Plate XIII Kulah Prayer Rug . 



Plate XIV Laristan Rug 



Plate XV Sehna Khilim . 
Plate XVI Herez Prayer Rug 



. Artotype 96 

Color Plate 1 04 

Color Plate 1 20 

Artotype 1 28 

Color Plate 1 36 

Color Plate 1 52 

Artotype 160 



Plate XVII Very Old Persian Prayer Rug Color Plate 168 
PlateXVIII Mina Khani Kurdish Rug . Color Plate 184 



Plate XIX Feraghan Sedjadeh 
Plate XX ShirazRug 



Artotype 1 92 
Color Plate 2 OO 



Plate XXI Tekke Prayer Rug . . . Color Plate 224 
Plate XXII The Mosque Carpet of Ardebil Artotype 244 



PlateXXIII Yomud Turkoman Rug 



Color Plate 252 



Plate XXIV Samarkand Rug 



. Artotype 260 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
PHASES OF THE RUG INDUSTRY 

PHOTO-ENGRAVINGS 



FACING 



Shepherds of Northern Persia 16 

Anatolian Women Washing Wool 48 

Yarn Workers at Home 80 

East Indian Factory: Stretching the Warp . . .112 

A Nomad Studio 144 

Kurdish Girls at the Loom . . . . . .176 

Boy Weavers of Tabriz „ . 212 

A Rug Market in Iran . ...... 236 



DESCRIPTION OF PLATES 
Plate I. Fifteenth Century Royal Persian 

ii. io x 6.1 
From the Collection of t lie late Henry G. Marquand 

THIS is probably as near perfection as the woolen carpet of the East 
has ever come. It was a gift from the Emperor of the Persians, pre- 
sumably to the Emperor of the Turks, for an authenticated record in 
the possession of its late owner set forth that the rug was among the effects of 
the Sultan Abdul Aziz of Turkey at the time of his death. The only pieces 
of this extraordinary character which have passed out of possession of the 
Oriental rulers and satraps who owned them are now locked in the treasure 
chambers of other princes, or displayed in the public or private galleries of 
Europe. 

In point of design this piece is closely kin to that owned by Prince Alexis 
Lobanow-Rostowsky, a reproduction of which in colors was published as Plate 
XI in the Vienna Museum's work " Oriental Carpets." 

Beginning with the matter of color, there appears here in the medallions 
of both centre and border the uncommon shade of wine red which is found in 
Plate XI. The green, instead of being used as a ground color for the border, 
is applied to the production of a higher and infinitely more artistic effect. 
Upon a black central ground is spread, after the fashion of the Sufi times, a 
bewildering but perfectly balanced and coordinate display of moss-green 
creepers. The parent stems, which are the framework of the vine structure, 
are in a deep shade of orange, outlined with more pronounced red. Even these 
are slender and curved in the most graceful manner ; but the green branches, 
leaves, tendrils, and even flower shapes which grow out from them, are of in- 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

credible delicacy and profusion. Here and .there, at regular intervals, and in 
corresponding positions on both sides and ends of the field, are tiny natural 
flowers, in glowing colors, similar to those seen in such plenty in the Ardebil 
carpet (Plate XXII), save that in number and size they are reduced to a mini- 
mum in order not to distract attention from the more essential animal figures 
which inhabit the field. 

In the centre is a medallion, with what for the sake of clearness may be 
termed " escalloped edges," and depending from this, toward each end of the 
rug, though with no pretense at actuality, are the temple lamps. Medallion 
and lamp simulacra are both grounded in what has been called the Ispahan red, 
and upon this, in pink — a faint, unobtrusive, but withal beautiful contrast — 
other fragile interwoven vine traceries. 

This serves merely as a composite background for the superb arabesque 
design worked in silver thread, the pile yarns apparently having been omitted to 
allow the metal threads to be attached directly to the warp, in what closely re- 
sembles the Soumak or tapestry stitch. A very similar device is also found in 
the centre of the Ardebil carpet. 

In the innermost space of the medallion, symmetrically grouped, are four 
birds, evidently of the hawk tribe, drawn with much skill and considerable 
veracity. Outside the medallion, disposed amid the green in the most lifelike 
attitudes of flight, pursuit, combat, etc., are the animals which play such 
prominent parts in the Moslem allegories, and which were, in fact, endowed 
with such large mythological significance by the peoples of Asia long before 
the rise of Mohammedanism. The profundity of meaning which attaches to 
these divers beasts, and even to their sundry attitudes and occupations, is 
hard to come at ; but it is impossible to overlook the difference in posture and 
relation to one another between the animals in the Lobanow-Rostowsky rug 
and this. It is quite to be credited, too, that these changed attitudes and re- 
lationships, coupled with the wholly dissimilar color scheme, are meant to 
convey a different meaning, to depict another state of feelings, another stage 
in the progress of the endless contest between right and wrong that the animal 
entities are supposed to typify. 

Without endeavoring to expound the beliefs of which the animal king- 
dom provides visible symbols, it will suffice to repeat that the beasts of prey 
generally represent light, victory, glory, right ; and such as deer, gazelles, 
sheep, goats, and the like, the opposite. In the Lobanow-Rostowsky rug the 
central field is of a lighter color, verging on yellow, and corner spaces are for- 
mally set off, occupied by the heron and other birds. Here the corners are 
abandoned, and the birds included in the centre medallion, the heron, usually 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

an emblem of long life, being omitted. It should be noted that the birds of 
the hawk tribe have been in all lands and ages suggestive of victory. The 
coincidences in color and design here are scarcely to be dismissed. They sug- 
gest much. The heron is left out ; the hawks, which occupy the corner space- 
in the other rug, are here transferred to the centre of the carpet. The backs 
ground is laid in funereal black, but traversed and overspread with the nascent 
green which is emblematic of renewal, perpetuity, and great spiritual joy. 

Thus, without translating the inscriptions on the rug, which will be re- 
ferred to later on, there is a suggestion of death, coupled at the same time 
with repeated symbols of victory, and a suggestion of fierce prosecution of the 
endless struggle between right and wrong, light and darkness. 

But the contest as figuratively set down in this carpet seems to have pro- 
gressed to the point of partial conquest, since the panther has captured the 
fawn and bears it down, whereas in the Lobanow-Rostowsky rug the move- 
ments of pursuit and flight among all the animals seem to have just begun. 
Jackals still follow the track of the deer; the leopard, a bold and fierce figure 
crouches in his thicket of green, ready to spring upon the he-goats, warring 
powers of evil. The huge red lion, Persia's own symbolical beast, an element 
not shown in the other rug, roars on the trail of the spotted stag, which turns, 
terrified. In deep thickets, close to the lairs of lions and leopards, the timid 
rabbit hides in dread, or elsewhere takes refuge in flight. 

Yellow has in all ages been expressive of joy and victory. It is royally 
displayed in the broad borders of the rug, overspread with fine vine patterns 
in a monotone of orange. In the border of the Lobanow-Rostowsky rug there 
are, all told, six cartouches, grounded in black, of the same shape as those 
found in the Ardebil carpet, and joined by escalloped medallions in the same 
manner. But here there are twelve of these cartouches, instead of six, and 
they have a ground color of the Ispahan red, inlaid with pink vines, similar to 
the medallion in the centre. Again the idea of immortality is to the fore, as 
that is the ordinary significance of the cartouche. 

Thus, from first to last, in spite of the black centre which suggests a 
mourning carpet, there is the note of triumph, joy, and immortality. In view 
of the intermittently hostile relations maintained between Persia and Turkey 
during the era when the rug was unquestionably made, all that is to be read 
in its design is most vital, and seems expressive of some phase of history, 
which was then making so vigorously. 

Whatever temporal significance the carpet may have borne, as a gift from 
one monarch to another, the general interpretation outlined in the foregoing 
is amply sustained by the inscriptions in the border, a most sympathetic trans- 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

lation of which has been made by Dr. Richard J. F. Gottheil, of Columbia 
University. With his permission it is here given. 

O Saki, the zephyr of the Spring is blowing now ; 
The rose has become fresh and luxuriant. 

The drops of the dew are like pearls in the cup of the tulip, 
And the tulip unfolds its glorious flag. 

Narcissus keeps its eye on the stars, 

Like the night-watch throughout the night. 

To sit alone in the desert is not 
Isolation with the company of wine. 

When Saki passes the beautiful cup around 
The rosy cheeks of the beauties become 

Violet for the love of the rose, 

And look like the purple robe of a horseman. 

The lines, though it is difficult to locate them precisely, are, like nearly 
all the inscriptions found in Persian fabrics of whatever age, a quotation from 
one of the poets of that most poetical of all eras, and perfectly illustrative of 
the high artistic impulse which centuries of war, pillage, gradually waning 
power and swiftly increasing poverty and suffering have failed to eliminate 
from the Persian nature. — From the Author s Notes as set down in the Catalogue 
of the Marquand Collection. 



I 

INTRODUCTI O N 

" Although we have ever)- reason to believe that the art of carpet weaving dates back to the be- 
ginning of history, there is probably no industry about which we know less bibliographically, and the 
paucity of reference is more extraordinary as it is not confined to the works of remote ages, but is con- 
tinued to our own time. A visit to any of the leading carpet merchants of the principal cities of 
Europe will illustrate and confirm this statement. Beyond such broad terms as ' Persian,' ' Turko- 
man,' ' Smyrna,' they know little of the old carpets in their stocks, whilst the exigencies of compe- 
tition force them to conceal the names of the localities of manufacture of modern carpets, excepting 
certain well-known factories." — C. Purdon Clarke, Assistant Director of the South Kensington 
Museum. 

THE purposes of this book are: First, to consider the deep 
and enjoyable meaning of Oriental floor coverings ; second, 
to throw light upon the life and work of the weavers ; third, 
to dispel, so far as lies within the power of the author, the obscurity in 
which the subject has hitherto been involved, and place the reader in 
possession of such information regarding the rugs, both genuine and 
spurious, now generally offered for sale in American markets, as shall, 
in a measure at least, deliver him from the mercy of the decorator, 
the salesman and the auctioneer ; fourth, to emphasize the superiority 
of the old vegetable dyes, the true Oriental coloring ; finally, to give 
an idea of what constitutes true value, of the comparative worth of 
the various Oriental weavings, and the means of distinguishing them. 
Heretofore, no work has been obtainable which even pretended 
to the performance of this needful task. Publishers and booksellers 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

who many times in each year are compelled to answer no, to requests 
for such a manual, will confirm this assertion. In view of the enor- 
mous sales of rugs — those actually made in the Orient, both good and 
bad, and those turned out by millions from factories in England, 
Germany and America, it seems incredible that there should be noth- 
ing in form of print to tell the purchaser aught of the commodities 
upon which, whether as collector or householder, he expends large 
sums of money. Both upon artistic and hygienic grounds the use of 
Oriental forms of carpeting has become widely prevalent in the United 
States during the last ten years ; and yet, to this day, no man may 
know more of the class to which his rugs belong than his dealer or 
his purchasing agent chooses to tell him. 

The fact that the importation of Eastern fabrics on the one 
hand, and the manufacture of American imitations and substitutes on 
the other, have so fabulously increased during the decade just passed, 
is of much significance in connection with the lack of all definite pub- 
lished information upon the subject. Rug dealers have been un- 
willing to reveal the secrets or, in truth, any of the real working 
knowledge of their trade, and the guarding of the mystery has been 
distinctly worth the while.' 

The only books treating of the subject, hitherto, with practical 
intent of any sort, have been the splendid publications bearing upon 
a few ancient and almost priceless pieces in the European collections, 
and the advertising brochures of rug-selling firms — pages fertile in 
word-painting and tempting in construction, but sterile in practical 
information. These have dealt chiefly in the glamour of the theme, 
but they have prospered in the thing whereto they were sent. 

The sentences of Mr. Purdon Clarke, cited at the beginning of 

1 Custom House statistics show that while prior to 1892 there were brought to this country only 
$300,000 worth of Oriental rugs annually, the value of the importation has grown, even under the most 
deterrent tariff schedules, to more than $3,000,000. The manufacture of American machine-made 
rugs has increased ten-fold in the same time. 



INTRODUCTION 

this chapter, were written of the European rug trade ; but they apply 
as accurately to much of that of the United States. To illustrate : 
The writer saw, among five hundred fabrics in a New York establish- 
ment, a dark, stout rug, perhaps five feet by ten. The befezzed Ori- 
ental who was in charge urged its purchase. 

" It is a fine rug, that," he said ; " a very rare variety." 

" Of what variety is it ? " 

" That," he responded with impressive gravity, " is a LuleV' 

" Ah ! A Lule. And from what does the name come?" 

" From the old city of Lule in Persia," he answered ; " my father 
was born there ; it is a fine old town." 

It was plain he was going on to tell the threadbare narrative, as 
venerable as the city of Lule\ and as fictitious, of how this particular 
bit of carpet was more than a century old— was, in fact, an heirloom 
in his family ; of how his father had died just after bringing it all the 
way to this country, and it could now be had for the wretched sum of 
fifty dollars, because its associations made him so sad. 

As a matter of fact, the name " Luld " is a corruption of the 
French roulez, and is given by Levantine dealers, whose business is 
largely transacted in Gallic, to a class of carpets so thick, so tightly 
woven, that they cannot be folded, but must of necessity be rolled up 
for shipment. 

But the part of this anecdote most germane, perhaps, to the 
present discussion is that the rug was not in the least a " Lule," but a 
somewhat down-at-heel Kurdish product from the sand-hill districts 
of Mosul. 

The ignorance of this particular vendor happened to be grossly 
patent ; but the incident illustrated, as well, the too common custom 
of beguiling the buyer with egregious tales, a custom against which 
the average person is unarmed. There is probably no place in the 
world where a man with no leg of actual knowledge to stand on will 

3 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

prove so helpless as in the midst of a stock of a thousand or more 
Oriental rugs. The floors are carpeted with them, the walls and 
ceilings are hung thick with them. Those for sale are flashed before 
his eyes, often without classification, and with a rapidity of succession 
which is deadly, even to expert judgment. The swift kaleidoscope 
of diverse and unfamiliar patterns, coupled with an array and arrange- 
ment of colors the like of which is not elsewhere, produces a dazed 
condition akin to hypnosis ; the faculty of selection is benumbed. 

But, lest these observations be misapplied, it should be said 
promptly that in this maze there is much to confuse the most expert. 
There are rugs in every trade collection which defy identification. 
The elements to be considered are many and complex, since the 
people engaged in rug-making number into millions, all with wills 
and inspirations of their own. 

Were it not for this, conformity to local habits of texture and 
design would establish a rug's origin ; but both are apt, nowadays, to 
mislead. The weaver in a tribe whose fabrics have for centuries 
been built upon a woollen warp and weft may substitute cotton or 
goat's-hair for one or both, either from necessity or caprice. It is 
conceivable, too, that some wild leader in the North may on a day 
have revealed to him a new and extraordinary design. To the thou- 
sands of his clan he may issue an order to abandon the old patterns, 
and to fashion in their stead this new figment of his imagination, to 
his own glorification and their profit. A year later the bales will come 
to market, in place of the customary products of the tribe, and deal- 
ers will wrangle mightily over them. Scorn will be visited upon him 
who shall make bold to say that he knows these strange creations to 
be — let us say — Kazaks, even though he bought them from a Kazak, 
or, for that matter, saw them wrought. 

The latitude for error is boundless, even to the best judges, since 
manufacture for market has become the rule instead of the exception, 



INTRODUCTION 

and European and American designs have been sent to the Oriental 
weaver for working. There is, perhaps, no art in which opinions as 
to the origin of products differ so widely, and with reason upon 
the side of all. Hence no writer, no authority so called, no dealer in 
rugs may lay claim to infallibility. Patterns, figures, designs are 
largely discarded as a means to identification. The designs are 
jumbled to suit a market demand, and it is, of course, impossible to 
identify a nondescript. Turkish, Persian and Caucasian elements are 
wrought into one and the same rug by prisoners in the East Indian 
jails. Many designs, too, have come into common use over a wide 
extent of territory. In a Persian bazaar I have heard two Hamadanlis 
disputing for half an hour as to whether a certain pair of runners 
came from Kara Geuz or Kengawar. 

Nevertheless the craft is not wholly debauched ; types are not 
yet wholly annihilated. It is with types that this book essays to deal, 
and with this understanding the textile tables and specific descrip- 
tions of various rugs are presented. They are formulated from the 
results of personal experience in the manufacture, collection, buying 
and selling of rugs, and upon the author's own studious examination, 
both in America and in the Orient, of many specimens of each class 
discussed. 

The divisions are more minute than those ordinarily made by 
rug sellers. The significance of this is made plain in the quoted 
remark of Mr. Purdon Clarke. The names here employed are those 
in vogue among the rug traders of Smyrna and Constantinople. 
Some are provincial ; some indicate a town, oftentimes merely the 
market-place; some, a tribe ; some have no discoverable origin. Others 
still are inventions of recent time, devised solely to mark a quality. 
Many of them all are wholly misleading, and not understood in the 
districts where the carpets are made. It seems best, however, to adhere 
to them rather than to bring about confusion greater than that which 

5 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

already exists. There are doubtless many names, adopted for purposes 
of trade, which are not to be found here. Hundreds of new and sound- 
ing titles may be advanced, so long as carpet firms invent novelties, 
or shepherd women weave upon their mountains, each as she wills, 
putting into their fabrics the glory of the sunset, the bend of the 
river where their flocks water, or rude depictions of the sheep grazing 
about the foothills." But it is unquestionably true, as an English 
authority has said, that " the place of production can, within a wide 
area, be ascertained with sufficient certainty." 

Something must here be said concerning the deterioration in 
Oriental fabrics, to which inferential allusion has already been made. 
In some districts the decadence in the present product, from the old 
standards of design, color and execution, is pitiful. The weavers 
seem to have learned from the West the demoralizing lesson of haste, 
and have developed, to a sad degree, the attendant vice of careless- 
ness. At the same rate of retrogression that has marked the last 
two decades, the next generation will, perforce, have lost the magic 
of its forbears, and the fabrics which have delighted and amazed the 
world will have become mere matters of history. The patterns are 



1 For example, rugs, chiefly of Persian manufacture, are sold under the names Kinari, Sarpuz, 
and Sarandaz. These titles are of no significance as denoting any particular locality of manufacture. 
They are applied arbitrarily to rugs of a certain shape or quality. Kinari is the Persian name for 
the long strip carpets, the makatlik, or "runners," which form the sides of the triclinium ; Sarandaz 
denotes the wider strip which goes across the head of the room, and upon which the lord of the house 
sits. Sarpuz, when reduced to English in like manner, means simply a covering. The name may be 
applied to any soft, light rug adapted to the uses of domestic comfort. 

An anecdote illustrative of the way in which new rug names are secured is told by Mr. W. H. 
Banta. It relates to the Bandhor rugs, which are known far and wide throughout this country as a 
heavy and rather low-priced quality of Asia Minor carpets. " Many years ago," he said, "there was 
ordered by a New York firm a line of stout carpets on the model of the modern Ghiordes, but with 
some variations in design. When the first one arrived a gentleman from Boston saw it, liked it, and 
offered right away to buy it. A price was named, double what we had really intended to sell it at, but 
he didn't balk. When he asked the name of the fabric we had no name to give him, so two or three 
of us got out the map of the East, and each selected a name. These, written on slips of paper, were 
placed in a hat, and I put in my hand and drew out the paper bearing the word Bandhor. So we 
called the rugs Bandhor, and they have been so known ever since. 

6 



INTRODUCTION 

being Occidentalized, if the expression is permissible ; the colors are 
already, to a great extent, the product of the laboratory; the charac- 
teristic beauty and strength of the Eastern rugs are even now far on 
the way to extinction. 1 All the causes contributory to this condi- 
tion can scarcely be enumerated, and it would be vain to enter upon 
arraignment of the many classes who lend their share of aid toward 
it. The question is essentially an economic one. There is involved 
the acquisitiveness of the several dealers through whose hands the 
fabrics pass, and even the weaver himself is not exempt from dis- 
credit, since he yields to the temptation to produce much, though of 
poorer quality, that his gains may be greater. Unless the human 
fames auri can be allayed, the evil will continue. 

But aside from this phase, it must be seen that at the root of the 
matter lies the demand of the West for these fabrics, a demand born 
of the growing artistic tendency — or, possibly, the " Oriental fad " — 
of Western peoples. The centre of population changes. The races 
left in the Orient, mere remnants of the millions who swarmed there 
of old, are unequal, with their slow methods, to the task of carpeting 
the homes of the teeming West and yet maintaining the quality which 
prevailed when there was no demand save that created by their own 
necessities. 

There are industrious sales-gentlemen who will stoutly and un- 
blushingly deny the deterioration. They will contend, whether sin- 
cerely or not, that innovations have been solely in the nature of prac- 
tical improvement. They may even defend the substitution of aniline 
dyes for the old vegetable mordant dyes of the East, upon the grounds 
of " facility," " brilliancy " and "scope." But such will hardly find 
solace or corroboration in a comparison of the antique and modern 



1 " Possibly there may be a resurrection of the Persian art, but in the meantime aniline dyes, 
tawdry European imitations and western models, without either grace or originality, are doing their 
best to deprave it." — Mrs. Bishop : "Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan." 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

Feraghans, or make bold to place the old-time Ghiordes beside much 
of the rubbish turned out to-day from that ancient home of fine work- 
manship. 

As to the precise meaning of the word " antique," as applied to 
Eastern carpetings, interpretations differ. For the purpose of the 
collector, an "antique" has been defined as a fabric which has not 
less than fifty years of actual age. But the number of these 
arriving in this country constitutes such an infinitesimal proportion 
of the entire importation of fabrics offered for sale by that name, and 
artificial methods are so efficacious in producing the appearance of 
age, that rug dealers, for business purposes, have come to count as 
" antiques " all fabrics which, in respect of dyes, materials, patterns 
and texture, are constructed in anything like similarity and equality 
to the rugs of half a century back. 

The almost fabulous demand which has grown up in the last 
twenty-five years has in many lines cleared the market of antiques, 
and given rise to a reckless outpour of inferior stuff, such as can be 
thrown together in a minimum of time and sold for the lowest price. 
Working overtime, and with unlimited employment in view, the Ori- 
ental, happy that there has arisen such a call for his handiwork, does 
not dream how near is the "demise" of the goose which has laid him 
this golden egg. The great firms of Persia, on their part, have seen 
the handwriting on the wall, and the concern which controls the vast 
output of certain of the looms at Sultanabad has begun, by a rever- 
sion to the old painstaking, to restore the Feraghans, which once 
ranked among the best fabrics in Persia, but have of late years, fallen 
to the job-lot level. 

But although the weaver's art has, under stress of temptation, be- 
come in a great measure an industry, pure and simple, it should not be 
judged by any extreme example. Wisdom seems not to have waned 
so easily in all parts of the Orient, for there are rug-producing neigh- 

8 



PLATE II 









Plait. II. LESGHIAN Sikh- of iiik Caucasi 

Loaned by Mr. /■'. /!. 

A considerable number of rugs proceed from the middle section of the I 
casus, in which yellow and blue prevail almost as largely as they do in the sed- 
jadeh and prayer carpets of Kulah. They are marketed chiefly in Tiflis and 
Elizabetpol, arid are attributed to the Lesghian tribes, scattered all along the 
loot-hills of the range. They show less of conformity to the strict letter of Cau- 
casian design than those of the sections farther East, but like the rug here 
reproduced, seem to pursue in part a symbolism of their own, and in minor orna- 
mentation lean toward the Persian teaching. They are bright, wholesome and 
serviceable and in certain surrounding-; most desirable in point of color. 



INTRODUCTION 

borhoods where the standards of design and workmanship have been 
more scrupulously upheld. Whether, in adhering to ancient methods 
the weavers of these parts had foreknowledge of the penalty which 
waits upon retrogradation, may not be clear, but the logic of the mat- 
ter is apparent in the prestige and the compensation which in every 
rug market wait upon this staunch devotion to classic models. 

But even the best of modern products are forced to pay tribute 
to the infatuation of the West for what is or seems to be of great age. 
The astute vendors of the East, and undoubtedly some in this coun- 
try, take shrewd advantage of ever}' blemish in a rug, and employ 
unnumbered tricks of chemical and other treatment, to add the ap- 
pearance of age, and consequent value, to fabrics which left the 
looms perhaps not more than a year ago. It may be that your 
" antique," which you brought home yesterday in all the proud joy of 
ownership, has within its brief twelve-month of existence been made 
to undergo many processes. It may have been treated with lemon 
juice and oxalic acid, for example, to change its flaring reds into old 
shades, or with coffee to give it the yellow of years. Its lustre may 
be born of glycerine. It may have been singed with hot irons. 
Its hues have perhaps been dulled by smoke. It may have been 
buried in the ground and then renovated, sand-papered back and front 
to give the thinness of old age, and for the sheer decrepitude of an 
almost sacred and invaluable antiquity, hammered and combined at 
the sides and ends, and on spots over its surface. There is no end to 
these devices, and not much cure for them. 

On the whole, it is to be well considered whether, with these 
facts in view, the wisest course in selecting Oriental rugs, for all save 
the most opulent buyers — the " collectors " — is not to abandon the 
rather bootless search for genuine antiques, and purchase fabrics con- 
fessedly new, but which conforms minutely to the highest standards 
which have the requisite number of knots to the square inch, the col- 

9 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

ors of which will not run when attacked by water, the patterns of 
which are purely the patterns of the East — what may, to identify 
them, be called practical antiques. 

The money paid for artificial age would secure all these merits in 
a new fabric ; the amount of service and genuine comfort derived 
would prove greater in the end, and as heirlooms — for they will out- 
live the buyer by generations — they would be dearer than if they had 
come into the family with what may accurately be called a "doubtful 
past." 

In any event it is best to recognize, first as well as last, the indis- 
putable fact that you cannot now secure desirable Oriental rugs for 
a song. Even though they be sold in the Orient at what we should 
consider most reasonable prices, it must not be forgotten that the 
duty upon them is forty per cent, ad valorem, and ten cents per square 
foot direct. When transportation, the ordinary expenses of business, 
profits of jobbers, et cetera, are counted, the foreign fabric necessarily 
calls for a substantial price, and it is safe to rest assured, generally, 
that who sells an Oriental rug very cheap, is selling a very cheap Ori- 
ental rug as well. 



II 
HISTORY 

CARPET, as it has long been understood, is a narrow word. 
It has meant, at most, merely a floor-covering. It is only 
in recent years that the Oriental fabric, lying loose upon 
the floor, has been designated by any other name than rug, no matter 
what its dimensions, nor how nearly it covered the entire floor space 
of the apartment. In our terminology nails have always been re- 
quired to make a carpet, even of a rug. Our multiplication of pieces 
of furniture has so subordinated the carpet that it has had merely the 
value of background. 

In Eastern life this is not so. The carpetings, in strictly Orien- 
tal furnishing, have always constituted well nigh the whole equipment 
and adornment of the apartment. They cover the floor, they cover 
the divans, which, save for small inlaid octagonal tables, are about 
the only furniture ; they take the place of ceiling and wall paper, and 
their picturings have always been employed to do what paintings, 
placques and etchings do upon our Western walls. 

The reason for the last-named utilization of the carpet may be 
found, in part at least, in the embargo which the Mohammedan canons 
lay upon the use of pigments, and further, in the even more stringent 
rules of the orthodox portion of Islam, which forbid, as well, all de- 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

piction in art of the human figure, or even of birds and beasts. Thus 
the art of the East has been mainly confined to textile fabrics, and 
except in Persia and parts of Central Asia, where the rigorous Sun- 
nite doctrine does not maintain, its expression has not gone outside 
the realm of conventional and cabalistic designs. The Persians, be- 
longing to the Shiite sect of Mohammedans — the " loose construction- 
ists" — accepted with readiness the grotesque animal figures of the 
Chinese — many of them, like the deer, leopard' and dragon, having 
their own religious significance, and even carried to an advanced degree 
of perfection the representation of human figures and the sprites of 
their mythology. 1 But for the most part the Mussulman populations 
have heeded the prohibition, and restricted themselves to such results 
in depiction as are vouchsafed by wool and silk. It is small wonder, 
then, that the fabrics are rich and varied. They embody, perforce, 
all that the Oriental knows of color, form, symmetry, the exaltation 
of faith and the delight of living. 

1 The figures of the lion and deer, or leopard and deer, seen so often in conjunction in the cen- 
tral fields of Persian rugs, are of very ancient origin. Scholars' opinions vary as to their precise deri- 
vation ; while they are believed to have been brought from China, in the ancient religion of which 
similar portrayals had a definite significance, kindred shapes are, nevertheless, found in gigantic relief 
upon stone porticos in the ruins of Persepolis, so that their importation from China, if that be indeed 
their birth-place, and their inweaving into the symbolism of the old Persians, must have been accomp- 
lished at a very remote period. Aside from all doubts as to their origin, it is generally agreed among 
Orientalists that the feline shape represents daylight, and that of the deer, or antelope, or whatever 
species of the family it may be, darkness. Invariably, the lion preys upon the deer, and, by a figurative 
interpretation, has come to be regarded in this connection as symbolic of victory or glory. It is perhaps 
imaginative, but, for all that, not wholly without reason, to believe that here, in some sort, is the 
foundation of the story that — 

" The Hon and the unicorn were fighting for the crown. 
The lion chased the unicorn all about the town." 

This derivation is not unlikely, since in some of the ancient depictions the vanquished animal is plainly 
seen to have the single horn growing from its forehead. 

2 " The religion of the Prophet forbade any representation of the human figure. This prohibi- 
tion does not appear to have been long observed, for we find that the walls of palaces and of the 
houses of the rich were covered with paintings. There was a school of painting at Basra [Bassorah, 
on the Shat-el-Arab], and a historian gives us the names of two painters of high celebrity in their 
art." — Professor Stanislas Guyard. 

12 



HISTORY 

The custom, prevalent in the Orient, of removing the shoes be- 
fore entering the doorway of a mosque or the habitation of a fellow- 
being, warrants the construction of fine carpets, in delicate tints and 
of dainty texture, for domestic use as well as for places of worship. 
But it is by no means certain that the first use of these was to be trod 
upon. It would seem, rather, that they were, in the beginning, em- 
ployed as hangings. 

How remote the time in which these strange textile devices were 
born is a matter for archaeology to determine. In a dozen different 
families of Oriental rugs are to be found the patterns of the stone 
carvings on the ancient Maya temples in Yucatan, which, if students 
of Mexican antiquities are to be believed, were built when Egypt was 
a wilderness, and abandoned centuries before Confucius. These 
Mayas were the people whose missionaries, it is averred, crossed the 
Pacific to settle in the Deccan, and journeying over Asia taught to 
infant Egypt the fundament of the Mysteries, and handed down to 
Judaism and Christianity, for future use, the story of Cain and Abel, 
and even the older one of the tempted Eve. 

There is needed no effort of imagination to believe that in the 
gay carpets of the East there lies written, though now probably un- 
translatable, the record of the universal mysticism. That they were 
made in prehistoric ages, and that their first value was religious or 
regal, rather than utilitarian, seems beyond doubt. Even in its 
rudest forms the art was sumptuary. It is coeval with the first up- 
lifting of one man above his fellows, whether the exaltation was reli- 
gious, pecuniary, or physical. 

It is not the purpose here to transcribe the historical record of 
this branch of the textile art, save in so far as shall serve to suggest 
forcibly the deep significance of Oriental fabrics, as embodying the 
natural religions which preceded all known or recorded formulae, the 
kinship of races now accounted alien to one another, and the trend 

13 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

and tenor of Eastern life, which through centuries of invasion, tur- 
moil, and wandering to and fro, has retained the forms which were 
taught it in the morning of the world. 

The skeptical — necessarily a synonym for practical — will be- 
grudge to rugs this measure of dignity or import. It is not, how- 
ever, claimed that these carpets relate in legible form the specific oc- 
currences of history. They do not specify. They are not even 
cuneiforms. They array no names, no dates. They do, nevertheless, 
when studied collaterally, tell an edifying story of a widespread and 
almost universal faith whose forms are lost, and of peoples of which, in 
this age of atomics, there remains little save the names. It is the in- 
dubitable identification of modern rug designs with the solemn and 
mysterious emblems of the " unrecorded time," the proven fact that 
the archaic systems of weaving were the same as those in vogue in 
the East to-day, that compels the thoughtful modern, of whatever 
race, to view these fabrics, as Sir George Birdwood says, as " works 
of art, and not manufacturers' piece goods produced at competition 
prices." ' 

There is thus far, it seems, no means of establishing, positively, 
an origin for these fabrics more ancient than the Egyptian. Certainty 
halts there, perforce, until some new light shall rise to reveal clearly 
an older civilization than that in the valley of the Nile. But there 
the weaver, laboriously, as he does to-day, wove his threads into the 
same mystical, universal shapes which come now in the rugs consigned 
from Smyrna and Stamboul. And yet, Heliopolis is a straggling 
ruin. Grass overgrows the foundations of the temples in which great 

1 This is in striking accord with the utterance of Adelbert de Beaumont, in his essay, " Les 
Arts Decoratifs en Orient et en France." He says: " Cachemires de l'lnde, bijoux de Lahore, ivoires 
et porcelaines de Chine et Ispahan, gazes et mousselines d'Agra, armes et tapis de Kurdistan, etc., sont 
tellement superieurs a ses imitations de fabrications modernes, par la qualitede lamatiere, par la beaute 
desdessins, l'harmoniedes couleurs, la solidite, lebonmarche, que tout homme eclaire et de bonne foi ne 
saurait un seul instant he'siter dans ses preferences, qu'il se place au point de vue de l'art ou a celui de 
l'industrie." 

14 



HISTORY 

tapestries once hung before the shrines of the Phcenix and the sacred 
Mneh. The glowing fabrics which made beautiful the altars of Isis 
and Osiris are dust, and in Cairo shrewd traders charge the Giaour 
travellers from Europe and the Americas ten prices for sedjadeh 
shipped over from Constantinople or Smyrna for the purpose, or for 
the scattering prayer-rugs and grave-cloths which come out from the 
districts beyond the desert. The Levantine merchants, if you ask 
them about the rugs from Damascus or Baghdad, will shrug their 
shoulders and shake their heads in negation; 1 but many skilful 
hands once labored at the looms in these cities, and the fabrics of 
Thebes, Tyre, Memphis, and Sidon were doubtless worth at one time 
almost their weight in gold. 

Assyria and Chaldea stand next to Egypt as ancient homes of 
carpet-making, and though no specimens of the early Assyrian re- 
main, the character of the designs is known from the wall reliefs 
found at Nineveh, which now have place in the British Museum. 
Professor J. H. Middleton, of Cambridge, says of these: "The 
stuffs worn by Asur-Banipal are most elaborate in design, being 
covered with delicate geometrical patterns and diapers, with borders 
of lotus and other flowers, treated with decorative skill. A large 
marble slab from the same palace is covered with an elaborate textile 
pattern in low relief, and is evidently a faithful copy of an Assyrian 
carpet. Still more magnificent stuffs are represented as being worn 
by Assyrian captives, on the enamelled wall tiles from Rameses II.'s 
palace (fourteenth century B. C.) at Tel el Yahudiyah. The woven 



1 There are made, in parts of the Baghdad district, and shipped from Baghdad, coarse nomad 
rugs following the lower order of Iran and Mosul designs, but Baghdad is not recognized as a home of 
carpet manufacture by the most of Levantine dealers. That its industry should have so fallen away is 
incomprehensible, since even down into the first quarter of the present century carpets were produced 
here which took rank with the best of Persian fabrics. They were, it is true, marked by many of the 
Chinese elements, an inevitable consequence of the long period of Mongol occupation. The textile 
product of the district nowadays takes principally the form of djijims or portieres, and other embroi- 
dery, for which materials are abundant in the outlying country. 

15 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

patterns are most minutely reproduced in their different columns, and 
the design, special to Assyria, of the sacred tree between two guar- 
dian beasts, is clearly represented, though on the most minute scale." 

This paragraph contains much in substantiation of the claim that 
modern Oriental carpets are identical with the earliest fabrics pro- 
duced in Egypt, for the " delicate geometrical patterns and diapers, 
with borders of lotus and other flowers," will be found reproduced 
with scarcely any modification in many Eastern rugs to-day. And 
touching the marble slab here referred to as " a faithful copy of an 
Assyrian carpet," it is agreed that many of the Babylonian designs 
are found in their completeness in the modern Persian pieces. " The 
preeminence of the ancient Babylonian weavers," says another writer, 
" does not appear ever to have been lost by their successors, and at 
the present time the carpets of Persia are as much prized and as 
eagerly sought after by European nations as they were when ancient 
Babylon was in its glory." 

As for the " design, special to Assyria, of the sacred tree be- 
tween two guardian beasts," referred to by Professor Middleton, it 
was found by the writer in New York City, no longer ago than 
December, 1899, in a Persian silk rug of beautiful workmanship and 
high value. The Armenian dealer laughed at it as uncouth, and said 
he had no idea of its meaning. Yet it linked the immediate present 
with the life of oldest Assyria, across the abyss of more than thirty 
centuries. Truly, " Mizraim cures wounds, and Pharaoh is sold for 
balsams." 

Pliny speaks in highest praise of the skill of these Assyrians in 
weaving, wonders at their artistic blending of colors, and records the 
fact that all this sort of work had come, long before his era, to bear 
the name of "Babylonica peristromata " — the seal of its most perfect 
masters. To this day, among the peoples of the Levant, that old 
Greek name lingers, and the traders of the Mediterranean fully be- 

16 



a 

(In 



Z 



HISTORY 

lieve that the whole art of rug-weaving had its earliest beginning, as 
well as its greatest splendor, in Babylonia and Chaldea. 

Of the Phoenician and archaic Grecian textile patterns the only 
knowledge to be had is in the designs of the pottery, which show in 
detail a multitude of patterns, both separate and consecutive, which 
appear in the rugs of Asia Minor and the Trans-Caucasus to-day, 
in perfect integrity. Professor Middleton refers to them in this wise: 
" Simple combinations of lines, arranged in designs obviously sug- 
gested by the matting or textile fabrics." He says further: "Some 
of the designs of this class seem common to all races of men in an 
elementary stage of progress, and occur on the earliest known pot- 
tery, that of the Neolithic Age." 

As time went on, this primitive ornamentation grew more pro- 
fuse. Greece and her neighbors borrowed the floral-geometrical pat- 
terns, chiefly the lotus and attendant shapes, from Egypt and 
Assyria, and made them part of their system of ornamentation, at the 
richest period of Greek predominance. This loan, it will be seen 
later, Greece and her pupil Italy repaid with interest to Persia, heir 
of the Assyrian art, centuries afterwards. 

While, after the perfection of the floral forms, Greece was wid- 
ening the field of her textile decoration, the far East, too, developed 
a newer richness in its weavings, the renown of which is so abund- 
antly preserved. How prominent a feature the carpets were of all 
the life of the Orient, plain and hodden in its poverty, bright and 
sumptuous in its splendor, the literature of all its eras shows. The 
Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is filled with allusions to them.. 
Their colors brighten the pages of Homer. Herodotus and Strabo> 
bear witness to the use of gold and silver carpets upon the floors in 
Persia. The chroniclers of conquest pause in their narratives to 
tell of the fabrics which were like a sunrise of gold upon a world 
strewn with blossoms. Every author of antiquity whose writings 

17 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

the hand of Time has spared has left record of those splendid 
weavings. 

For centuries, down into the Christian era, the fame of the 
Persian carpets grew among the people of the West, and vessels ply- 
ing the Mediterranean carried rich freights of textiles to golden 
Rome. Fortunes were lavished on them. Upon their conquest of 
Byzantium the Romans appropriated much of its civilization, but 
again receding, left its art almost unaltered by their presence. The 
East has remained the fountain-head of harmony. Even war and car- 
nage had no power to quell the spirit of its art. The Crusaders 
came home with their wonderful stories, and wore on their shields as 
heraldic devices the dragons and griffins and nameless birds which 
Egypt had centuries before wrought upon the tapestries of its tem- 
ples. The Troubadors sang, and the spirit of the East had entered 
into their singing. Europe went Araby mad. 

The Saracens, swarming into Spain, took with them the East- 
ern looms and patterns and hues, and wove in Cordova and other 
towns carpets like those of the Orient. Through all Europe, in this 
fashion, went the famous " carpets of Baldechine " ' and with them the 
legend and poesy and mysticism of the land where they were born. 

While the influence was spreading along the shores of the 
Mediterranean, another track had been opened by which notions of 
this dyeing and weaving and other Oriental handicrafts had been 
making way overland as far as Scandinavia, leaving all the way a 
trail which is plain to the present time. There have been found in 
towns on the Norse islands coins which show that commercial rela- 
tions existed between those parts and the Orient early in the Chris- 
tian centuries, and the southern races, exploring the Norseland long 
afterward, were amazed at the skill of these snow-girt nations in the 
dyeing of wool and the weaving of carpets and coverings. 

' Baghdad. 

18 



HISTORY 

But the Eastern textile industry as planted in turn in Spain, 
Sicily, and Venice, retained better its characteristic form, for the 
Mediterranean merchants took to their cities the most skilful weav- 
ers from the looms of Persia, and, first from Cordova, then from 
Palermo in the twelfth century, and from Venice in the fourteenth, 
Europe was supplied with carpets of the true Oriental pattern and 
method, to spread in its cathedrals, in the throne-rooms of its royalty 
and the boudoirs of its great ladies. 

So far had Italy progressed in the sixteenth century that the 
Shah Abbas, whose reign marks the climax of development in Per- 
sia, sent from his court, in order to demonstrate his antagonism to the 
Central Asian influence, so strong after the conquests of Genghis, 
Tamur, and their successors, a company of young men to study art 
under Raphael. It was in the lessons brought back by these that 
the seed was sown of the ornate, Italianesque touch in decoration, 
which is traceable in the rich Kirman and Tabriz rugs of the present 
time, and others made in imitation of them. 

The same era marked the establishment of the French factories, 
for the manufacture of " Turkish carpets " at Arras, Fontainebleau, 
Tours, the Louvre, the Tuileries, the Faubourg de St. Antoine, and 
the Savonnerie, culminating in the setting up of looms at the Gobe- 
lins', Beauvais, and Aubusson by Colbert for Louis XIV. 

With these we have naught to do, save to note that at Beauvais 
the tradition and theory of the Persian carpets were long lived up to. 
At Aubusson and the Gobelins' the Babylonian richness has given 
way to Gallic vanity, and the harmonious and meaning designs of 
the sixteenth century Persian have been replaced by the panoramic 
untruth of French classicism. The method in vogue at the Gobe- 
lins', known as the Gobelin technique, is not that generally employed 
in the carpet-making districts of the Orient. The closely trimmed 
pile, prettily termed " a mosaic in wool," is exchanged for the pro- 

19 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

duction of Gomplex color effects by the working of dyed weft-threads 
across the warp in true tapestry fashion. The crude beginnings of 
this system are discovered in the hard, wiry coverings called khi- 
lims, made chiefly in Kurdistan, Merv, Sehna, Shirvan, and among 
the nomad population in Anatolia ; a further development of it 
appears in the pileless Soumak rugs of the Caucasus. 

Great Britain had its first real knowledge of the Oriental carpet 
for domestic use, from Eleanor of Castile and her retinue, who 
brought with them on their journey into England in the thirteenth 
century the splendid pieces which Saracen weavers had turned out 
from the looms in Cordova and Granada. James I. established 
looms at Mortlake in Surrey, but the Civil War put an end to their 
operation, and only after the Edict of Nantes, when French dyers 
and weavers skilled in the Turkish colors and patterns took refuge 
in England, was the work there resumed with any measure of 
success. 

It was three hundred and fifty years ago that the " Turkish 
carpet" looms were set up in France, then leader in every art. Year 
after year, through the intervening centuries, spinners have spun 
and dyers have mixed their dyes, and weavers have labored patient 
at the loom in many lands. The iron age has contrived machinery 
to do the work of myriad fingers, and designers, the best the schools 
of two continents could furnish, have fed gorgeous patterns to the 
flying wheels, in hope to conquer the judgment and favor of the 
world. And still the dusky weavers of Daghestan, Kirman, Sehna, 
Kurdistan, and Tabriz are knotting before their rude frames the 
most splendid fabrics on the globe, and the Occident, coin in hand, 
waits upon their weaving. 



Ill 

THE RUG- WEAVING PEOPLES 

IT is hard not to put questions to an Oriental rug when you are 
alone with it. What of this little web, which in its gay Eastern 
coloring seems so much more like a silent, smiling guest than a 
property? Was it born in a shepherd's hut in the pillared mountains 
of Central Asia, with the snow whirling about the door, and the sheep 
and camels huddled without ? Or did the birds sing among the roses 
of a Persian village to the weaver as he tied the stitches in ? From 
what far defile in Afghanistan did it journey on camel-back to the 
sea, swept by the sand-storms of the desert, scorched by the Orient 
heat ? Was it paid to a mollah for prayers at the shrine of Mecca or 
Meshhed? Did it change hands in fair barter in the market-place, 
or did it pass over the dead body of its rightful owner to the keeping 
of the swarthy man who sold it to the dealers from Stamboul ? 

It has been maintained, in another chapter, that Oriental rugs, 
studied collaterally, tell much of bygone peoples and religions. Con- 
sidered in the same way, they are even more eloquent of the charac- 
ter, customs and conditions of the Eastern life of to-day. They have 
an inestimable value in suggestion. 

This volume cannot pretend to describe, even cursorily, the mul- 
titudinous tribes which populate the rug-making countries. They are 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

spread over a great territory. Many of them are alien to one another 
in origin. Many have undergone changes in speech and habit, both 
by conquest and peaceful assimilation, which make them seem kin 
when they are not kin at all. Others have preserved character, cus- 
toms and language, unaltered through centuries, and are to-day prac- 
tically what they were in the time of Moses. Some there are, dwelling 
in far fastnesses which look down over all Asia, whose province the 
modern geographer has scarcely invaded. Their highways bristle 
with armed men, and almost the only knowledge got of them is from 
the fabrics which are sent through the merchants of the neighboring 
and more pacific tribes to the great trade centres and the fairs in the 
low countries. 

Every populous district throughout the East holds fair, for the 
purpose of local traffic, one day in the week. Fair day is as much an 
institution with them as is the Sabbath among the people of New 
England. These fairs are rotatory. They are held in the different 
towns of the district, each having its regular day. The greater fairs 
are held once a year, and the traders of all the East journey to them. 
At Baluk-Hissar, near Broussa, Asia Minor, the fair is in May. 
August brings the famous gathering of Yaprakli, fifty miles north of 
Angora, in the vilayet of Kastamuni. A collection of log-houses is 
there, great, flimsy buildings reared only for the purposes of the fair, 
and during all of August they are packed with men and merchandise. 
The remainder of the year they are empty, and all the country round 
is unpeopled as a wilderness. Another big fair is held near Mosul, 
the mercantile centre of Mesopotamia. 

These exhibitions are to the South, in a small way, what that of 
Nijni Novgorod is to Russia. But more significant, in the present 
discussion, are the great fairs farther to the eastward, in the Persian 
and Turkoman towns. There for weeks the life of every quarter of 
Asia and Asia Minor may be seen at its gayest and best. No dis- 



THE RUG- WEAVING PEOPLES 

tance is too great for the trader to travel to show his wares. Mon- 
gols and Tartars of the Central Asian hordes, Tekkes from Merv 
with a pigtail down each side of the head, men from Bokhara, clad all 
in white, with shawls swathed about their loins, and the many- 
tongued kashbag dangling from their waists, fierce Kurds, descended 
from the Medes and Chaldeans of old, who can trace their pedigrees 
back in unbroken lines for a hundred generations, wandering Hats, 
bearded Kazaks from the Kirghiz wastes, timid, indolent, astute, 
mendacious, dreamy-eyed Persians, greasy Afghans and Beluches 
whose most ecstatic joy is in bloodshed, East Indians, in whose de- 
meanor is the calm of centuries, Syrians, Arabs with horses as proud 
as themselves, Anatolians, wheedling Armenians, resourceful Greeks 
and the inevitable Jew — they are all there, bargaining away for dear life. 

All the ways leading to the great bazaar are dusty from the end- 
less procession of heavy-laden asses and camels. Even from distant 
China come the caravans, and almond-eyed merchants exchange their 
bales for print-cloths, clocks, and jewelry of the Mediterranean. 
Here one may learn how wide is the field of Oriental carpet manufac- 
ture. To this omnium gatherum are brought, along with other 
wares, the woven products of remote districts, and the rug trader 
who has brow-beaten the people of his own village sharpens his wits 
here against those of rivals as shrewd and heartless as himself. But 
with all this mixture of peoples whose promise would not stand for 
an hour with an American shop-keeper, every man's word, in a busi- 
ness transaction, is as good as yellow coin. Their dealing is almost 
all in the nature of barter, and obligations are held good by word of 
mouth until the vendor can collect his debt in some commodity he 
needs, from a third, fourth or fifth person who owes the purchaser. 
No checks are drawn, and little ready money passes. 

At night, while the fair lasts, bonfires are lighted in the hasar or 
yard of the caravanserai — in Turkey it is called avluh — and in their 

23 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

weird light jugglers and mountebanks perform. Wandering trouba- 
dours, blind men as a rule, or Dervishes, contest in improvisation, as 
singers were wont to do in Europe centuries ago. When their rhym- 
ing is ended, both rise from the little rugs which they carry for use in 
such engagements, and go about among the company, collecting coins 
in their shells or great horns. These receptacles are rudely mounted 
with silver, and are usually swung by a chain. Shooting, racing, mock 
fights, wild music and such dancing as surely was never seen out of 
Asia, make up the programme of the time's delights. Then the 
camels, which came bearing Western trinkets, return homeward laden 
with the carpets of Persia, Afghanistan, and the Trans-Caucasus. 
Contracts have been made, and the middlemen from the rug districts 
go away with orders tucked snugly in their girdles. Then follows a 
new buying of wool, a new dyeing, and warps are stretched for a new 
season's work, upon looms worn by the hands of many generations. 

The whole business of rug-making throughout the East, except, 
of course, where it is conducted by large firms, is controlled by the 
head merchant of the town. This extraordinary person has a finger 
in every enterprise. He is in many cases mayor, storekeeper, lawyer, 
notary, farmer, and whatever else offers a margin of money and influ- 
ence. Upon the verandah of his house are as many looms as there 
is room for. The folk of his own household and the wives and 
daughters of his neighbors find employment there. Early morning, 
after the first prayers at the mosque, sees them skurrying to the 
" factory." They work at so much a " pick " of twenty-seven inches — 
or in Persia by the arshin, a somewhat larger measure, varying in 
different localities — but the price is merely nominal, for the earnings 
are invariably taken out in trade at the store. The local potentate 
thus manages to hold them forever in his debt, and when a debtor 
dies the obligation passes on as a legacy to the heir. 

People who make rugs in their own homes are none the less in 

24 



PLATE III 





Plate III. 

The bold character of the K to which some reference has been 

made in the text, is quite plainly expressed in this heavy fabric. The ma 
of color is infinitely strong, and it is fearless as well — witness the heavy trian- 
gular spaces of green and blue thrust against one another in the border. I 
rude these people are may be seen by comparing this version of the wine 
border with that found in the black and white reproduction of the Shirvan rug 
(Plate VII). 

The octagons in the field, with their rough adornment of stars, as well as 
the larger medallion and the tarantula affair in the centre, are all recognized 
marks of Turkestan, whence these people long ago took their origin. For in- 
dication of their artistic skill, as compared with that of the rovers of their par- 
ent plains, contrast the drawing of all these figures in the central part of the 
rug with that found in the Tekke carpet exhibited under the title Yomud 
(Plate XXII 1 1, and in the small Tekke prayer rug (Plate XXI). 

The nomad tendency to scatter small bits of color through a space other- 
wise unoccupied may be seen in its freest indulgence here. But when consid- 
ered as a savage display of strong color, perhaps no carpet in the collection ex. 
eels this. The shading of the blues and greens, a trick which these half-bar- 
barians seem to have caught from the Kurds with whom they are in constant 
contact, should be noted, i which the rug is mi . the finest 

and its lustre is admirable. 



THE RUG- WEAVING PEOPLES 

the tudjar's power. He provides them with wool, sees to the paying 
of the dyer, advances to them whatever groceries and other supplies 
they need, and keeping a studious eye on the progress of their work, 
appropriates the carpet when it is finished, and adds it to his store of 
merchandise to be taken to the next fair for sale. 

Monotonous and profitless and hopeless as this system is, the 
Oriental people cling to it. They have a weavers' guild — esnaff, the 
Turk calls it — but it never undertakes to regulate wages. Its chief 
function is to protest — and that heartily — against any innovation 
upon this old method of procedure, to lift up its voice in rebellion 
when any mention is made of the importation of European machinery 
to aid in the spinning or dyeing of the yarn. 

The burden of the rug-weaving, in all the carpet countries, save 
India, falls to the women. They are patient, nimble-fingered, and 
learn the patterns quickly. In some parts of Anatolia and Persia the 
great demand in Western markets has driven men to the loom, and 
in the cities of Persia where rug-making has flourished for centuries 
under the personal tutelage of royalty and nobility, the best artisans 
are men. But in the more remote sections, and among the nomads, 
the women do all the weaving. They are the designers, too. They 
invent from year to year all the modifications of the old patterns. 
The head woman, the traveller Vambery relates, makes a tracing upon 
the earth, doles out the wool, and in some of the tribes chants in a weird 
sing-song the number of stitches and the color in which they are to 
be filled, as the work goes on. 1 As little girls of six or seven years 



1 This "rule o' thumb" method of designing is not confined in the Orient to rug-making 
nomads. It is common throughout Asia Minor, even nowadays, to see builders, who are their own 
architects as well, tracing on the ground the plans for successive steps of the work they are engaged 
upon. No general plan is made in advance, except in the case of a great palace, bath or mosque, 
where a miniature made by the master builder himself is used. Ordinarily, he plans as he goes. The 
design drawn on the ground is carefully studied. If it bids fair to come out all right the quarrymen 
and stone-cutters are ordered to cut according to it. The only measure employed is the primitive one 
of the "hand's span." 

25 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

the women begin to work about the looms, rolling and passing the 
yarn, then learning to beat down the rows of knots after the weft has 
been thrown across. The first actual weaving they do is on the 
broad central fields of solid color ; and from that they work up to the 
handling of complex patterns. The borders are the final test of skill. 
The girl's first earnings are spent in self-adornment — the purchase of 
ornaments such as she must wear her whole life through. At sixteen 
she must be skilled enough at her trade to begin thinking of a hus- 
band. It would be harsh to say that the girl is sold into the servi- 
tude of providing this lord with food, clothing, and his modicum of 
tobacco and raki, but the terms of marriage make clear the purely 
business nature of the transaction. A contre dot, to phrase it mildly, 
is paid by the husband to the father of the bride. If her first spouse 
be called away by death from the enjoyment of such an arrangement, 
the next who weds her must pay more. Repeated bereavement only 
serves to augment her value. This rule is plainly based on the 
theory that with each new year of experience at the loom, she be- 
comes able to earn more money by her weaving. 

In some parts of Asia, notably in Kurdistan and Eastern Turke- 
stan, and among the Yuruksof Anatolia, the women enjoy some mea- 
sure of emancipation. They go abroad unveiled, and laugh at the 
slavery in which their sisters in other sections are held. But the 
Turkish or Persian woman of the weaving class is content. Her life 
mission is to work for her husband ; she does it uncomplainingly. He 
helps her in the handling of the wool, and maybe in spinning and 
dyeing. In his spare time he tills a little land, raises some wheat 
and vegetables, tends a small vineyard or has a field of dye products. 

This last was a famous occupation for men in the Orient, until 
the chemical dyes began to be imported. Since then it has declined 
until there is no longer any profit in it. With digging alizarin root 
in the winter months, when the sap is down, gathering the yellow 

26 



THE RUG- WEAVING PEOPLES 

seeds, valonias, and gallnuts in the fall, and the many flowering 
shrubs and berries in their seasons, the weaving woman's husband 
could fill in a good share of his year, and, if he was saving, add 
a pretty penny to her earnings. 

But the old dyes, especially in the sections most accessible from 
the coast, are out of fashion. The anilines, which have been indus- 
triously pushed by invading agents, are about six-sevenths cheaper, 
and require no long process of compounding. Alizarin, when veget- 
able dyes were universally used, sold for twenty dollars a hundred- 
weight. It has now fallen to three dollars or less ; and not only is it 
an unprofitable crop, but the land where it has grown is thenceforth 
ruined for any other purpose. The Oriental farmer spends, in clear- 
ing his fields of the tenacious roots, more than he has ever made by 
their cultivation. So the male of the carpet-making family idles, and 
is happy therein. 

For education, there is little of it. In some districts the authori- 
ties, spurred on by the missionaries and by the Western cry for 
reforms, have in late years opened schools. But the work of instruc- 
tion lags. Reading and writing are about the extreme limit of eru- 
dition. Besides these schools, the village priest, who is also village 
schoolmaster, teaches children to sing verses of the Koran. In parts 
of Persia learning is more prized. There is rather more inclination 
to educate the young than in Turkey. The low-class Turk seldom 
knows even how to read or write. Information of an official sort is 
conveyed to him not through the medium of newspapers or placards, 
but by the government herald, or town crier, who goes about clanging 
a lusty bell, and shouting, " Bou gyun Allah couveti zlan"' — the 
solemn formula introductory to his errand. 

The Greek and Armenian populations are wiser in their day and 
generation. They make their lives and customs conform to progress. 

1 " To-day with the help of God." 

27 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

They utilize every innovation, turn every invasion to their own profit. 
They are wedges which are helping, by slow degrees, to open Asia to 
the commerce, learning and freedom of the West. In the schools 
of their communities, found in most of the large towns, the pupils are 
taught the handicrafts, the making of embroideries, cushions, counter- 
panes and slippers from European patterns. This sort of kindergarten 
training has large practical value. It makes them apt at following 
strange designs, and secures them employment upon the high-priced 
fantaisie work which is all made upon orders, and which the Turkish 
women are unable to master. 

In the mind of the Turk there is a deep-seated distrust and dis- 
like of the European and his improvements ; among the even more 
conservative races farther East this antipathy is a passion. In the 
mountain regions there are tracts where safety for the " Frank " — as all 
Europeans are called — is a thing unknown ; where his life and valuables 
are almost certain to be taken by the first roving company that spies 
him, unless, indeed, he be held for ransom. His only absolute safety 
against molestation is in an Oriental escort, backed up by a passport 
and tezkereh, with instructions mandatory upon all officials along the 
line of his journey to see to it that he goes unharmed. 

There is usually, however, a warm welcome for the native way- 
farer from the Mediterranean coasts, and it is a red letter day when a 
traveller comes to one of the hamlets which, for the sake of safety 
from marauders, are formed by the huddling together of the farmers 
who till the fields for a distance of perhaps twenty miles about. The 
son of the mukhtar (mayor) holds the voyager's bridle. The mukh- 
tar himself helps him to dismount, leads him into the house, and 
makes him the central attraction of the place, as long as the sojourn 
lasts. The foremost of the townsmen come to add their greetings, 
and, incidentally, to look the newcomer over, and see if he have not 
some new wonder to tell or show. It is an imposing ceremony, for- 

28 



THE RUG- WEAVING PEOPLES 

mal as a court function, and yet fraught with all cordiality. The host 
lights the fire in the mussajir odasi, or guest room, and spreads be- 
fore it the hearth rug, proudest possession of the household. Chairs 
there are none. Along the sides of the room heavy felt divans are 
arranged, and over them are spread rugs of fine quality, with rich, 
rug-covered pillows for comfort's sake. At the head of the apartment 
sits the host, with the guest at his right hand. 

When the salaaming is over and all are seated, the first of the 
callers takes from some recess of his raiment a little bag of raw cof- 
fee-beans. This he hands to the village dandy, an indispensable per- 
son on such occasions, who goes to the fire-place, and sitting cross- 
legged on the odjaklik, browns the berries in a long-handled pan, 
which he shakes over the fire like a corn-popper. This done, he places 
them in a wooden mortar, and with an iron pestle begins to crush 
them, droning a chant of welcome meanwhile, and beating time upon 
the coffee as he sings. Then he puts the. j'ezvc/i or coffee-pot on the 
fire to boil. While this solemn proceeding goes on the guest, if he be 
versed in the customs of the country, passes his tobacco among the 
company, who roll cigarettes ; and then the coffee comes. Thus 
amid the soothing fumes, and the even better-loved incense of talk, 
the night wears away. Each visitor in his turn produces a bag of 
coffee, and before the company disperses half a hundred cups may 
have been swallowed by every one of them, in case this traveller 
be what every good traveller should be, and what the Oriental loves 
almost as well as himself, a story-teller. 

A session of Heidelberg examiners could not quiz him more in- 
dustriously than does this room-full of villagers. Despite the stub- 
born resistance of these communities to industrial innovations, their 
interrogatories show the consuming interest they feel in the progress 
of the outside world. Steam, electricity, all manner of Frankish cus- 
toms, inventions, agriculture and its mechanisms, methods of trade, 

2Q 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

prices — these are the things upon which their interest centres. But 
there is in their questioning, for all its closeness and persistency, 
naught of intrusion or discourtesy ; they never pry into the visitor's 
religious, political, or family affairs. The comfort and safety of a 
guest are paramount. He abides there as long as it pleases him, eats 
his fill of the family comestibles — thin bread and sheep's-tail idX, pilaff, 
or whatever there may be — and goes on his way without mention of 
recompense from the host. A wrong done to him is a wrong done to 
the head of the house where he is harbored, and personal redress is 
tolerably sure to follow it. Not alone is this true of the more cul- 
tured part of the population. Even among the wind-swept habita- 
tions of the mountaineers, whose hoard is little, and to whom a human 
life is so much chaff, guesthood is sacred. 

There are many Christian weavers in the Orient, yet there is an 
utter absence of rugs betokening the Christian faith, save that the 
Greek cross, doubtless without any religious intent, is worked in the 
body of the Kazaks and in some Tzitzis. It must be remembered 
that the Christian teaching is nineteen hundred years old, but with 
this single exception its emblems are not found in any Oriental rugs 
made for market, though Indian and Mongol have wrought their creeds 
in wool, and every sect of Islam has given its belief expression in its 
fabrics. The desire for money has, of course, lured them to sell these 
almost sacred things, and carpets inwoven with the Koran have been 
smuggled out in spite of the governmental prohibition, to be trod by 
the foot of any infidel who was rich enough to buy them. 

In a letter to the writer, Mr. L A. Springer, European corre- 
spondent of the United Press, who travelled all through south- 
eastern Europe and the Levant during and after the Grseco-Turkish 
war, has thrown light upon this absence of the Christian emblems 
from the rugs imported to America. He said : 

" I have just come from Novi Varos, a little place in the Sanjak 

30 



THE RUG- WEAVING PEOPLES 

of Novi Bazaar. It offers a fair specimen of what the Mussulman 
policy is doing for Christian communities in the Turkish dominions. 
Years ago Novi Yaros throve by the manufacture of curious rugs. 
They were sent to Paris and London, and found great favor with the 
amateurs. But Novi Varos was almost entirely Christian, so the 
Porte put a ' last-straw tax ' on the inhabitants and ended their mak- 
ing of rugs for the trade. To-day the little town, straggling in the 
depths of its valley, has about half its former population. Houses 
stand vacant, and the Greek church, which was begun in more 
prosperous times, is unfinished. The Turkish law, fortunately for 
the Christian pocketbook, forbids bells, and the congregation is 
called to service by the clapping together of two boards. Every 
girl is still a weaver of rugs, but not for market. Her rug is her 
dowry. She spends all her girlhood weaving it, that it may cover 
her marriage bed. 

" I went with the village priest into some of the houses. They 
are very poor and squalid, but in almost every one is hidden one of 
those superb rugs. Their beauty, as the women brought them out 
from the chests in which they are kept, made a striking contrast with 
the mean surroundings. 

" The nap of these rugs is wool, but hemp is used for warp and 
weft. The people make their own dyes from barks. The designs 
are almost wholly of a religious character — the symbols of the 
church. Upon one was woven the figure of the Virgin, in the pecu- 
liar Byzantine style of the pictures in the Greek chapels. Another 
represented a priest in his richest robes. Others were a mingling of 
patterns from vestments. 

" These people have absolutely no idea of drawing, or of form, 
as taught in schools ; many of them have never seen a picture, ex- 
cept those in the village chapel, nor a rug made anywhere else than 
in Novi Varos ; yet their weavings are all artistic, and the colors 

31 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

tastefully chosen. The body of the rug is almost invariably white, 
the principal border red, relieved with tints of blue and green, and a 
deal of brilliancy is lent to them by the use of the most flamboyant 
yellow." 



38 









PLATE IV 












Plate IV. Baku Rug 

i 5.1 \ 4. - 
Property of the Author 



This rug might well be declared a thoroughgoing Kabistan, save for small 
discrepancy in the finishings. Instead of the broad cotton selvage shown 
by the Kabistans the weavers of the old Baku Province just to the East along 
the Caspian coasts, affect a single cord edging, after the manner of Shirvan, 
which in turn adjoins the Baku district on the South. In design and color the 
piece is almost perfect Kabistan. even to the birds in the corners, but a small 
streak of dull brown, probably camel's hair, thrown across the blue ground at 
the top, out of deference to superstition, immediately suggests the Baku 
weaving. 



IV 
MATERIALS 

IT is pleasant to believe that warmth of temperament, deep love 
of nature, delicacy of feeling, and an inherent sense of harmony, 
coupled with monumental patience, are the causes of the long- 
continued supremacy of the Easterns in the making of textiles. But 
there is another reason, which must by no means be lost sight of. 
The venerable recipe for making rabbit pie, which involves as a 
primary ingredient the capture of the rabbit, is in point. Nature has 
indeed endowed the Oriental with all the essential qualities of an 
artist, but Divine generosity and consistency are more clearly dis- 
played in the fact that there has been placed at his hand every ma- 
terial needful for the prosecution of his art. All the Eastern coun- 
tries, which may be called in this connection the rug-making coun- 
tries, reaching far north of the constantly advancing Russian border, 
and from the Mediterranean to the Great Wall of China, are natural 
homes of the animals which yield textile filaments. 

One can easily understand, in this light, how the Caucasian, 
Turk, Persian and Tartar, equipped with the faculty and supplied 
with the means, have held their own, and more, against the artisans 
and designers of the West, and the unlimited machinery with which 
science has striven to outdo them. These lands of the West, com- 

33 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

manding in altitude, benign in climate, in great part bountifully wa- 
tered, seem to have been providentially mapped out for pastures. 
Parts of the vast plateaus and sweeping foothill regions, distributed 
over Asia Minor, the districts of Kurdistan, western and southern 
Persia, Turkestan, Beluchistan and Afghanistan,' are in truth good 
for little else but grazing, and for this they are peerless. Divided by 
great water-courses, and laced by lesser streams, they are, save in 
some few unfavored parts, not afflicted by trying rain periods, and 
heaven tempers the winds, even of the Kirghiz steppes, to the lamb 
whether shorn or unshorn. Sheep, goats, camels, vast herds of them, 
roam these uplands, where they find a quality of nutriment for which 
chemistry has not yet been able to devise a wool-making equivalent.* 
There is no quarter of the world which has not heard the fame of the 
goats of Angora and Kashmir. No country, save perchance the up- 
lands of Spain, has produced wool equal to that shorn from the sheep 
herding about the salt lake of Niris in Farsistan. 

That there is something, either in the grass upon these plains, ,or 
in the climatic conditions, which affects beneficially the growth of 
wool, has been demonstrated by the utter failure to raise the animals 
of these localities elsewhere with an equal degree of success, although 



1 The volume of the wool product of Afghanistan is enormous. Yule says that besides fur- 
nishing wool for the Afghan carpets, the flocks of these mountains and plateaus supply to a great 
extent the demand of India, and in addition a great quantity of Afghan wool is exported to Europe 
by way of Bombay. 

2 " In the manufacture of carpets, although all are made upon one general plan, certain peculi- 
arities mark each country and each district. For example, in some places the foundation upon which 
the pile is woven is of cotton ; in others, of wool ; and in others again, silk is used. In Kurdistan, 
the foundation is usually made of wool, and the pile of goat's-hair or camel's-hair. Great differences 
exist in the quality of these materials in different places. The wool of the sheep, as is well known, 
changes its character according as the habitat of the animal is a warm, a cold, or a temperate climate. 
In Kurdistan and Khorassan the wool is extremely soft, and in some parts very lustrous. This is due 
in part to the breed of sheep, and in part to the pasturage on which they are nourished. ... In many 
places, also, the fleeces are of varied shades of color, deepening to actual brown and black, and ar« 
used in the designs in their natural condition without dyeing. This is a circumstance of some techni- 
cal importance, never as yet, so far as I am aware, much noticed." — Robinson's " Eastern Carpels." 

34 



MATERIALS 

effort has been made repeatedly, and at great expense. Long, fine 
wool for the nap is indispensable in the weaving of these knot fabrics, 
and a desperately small price is apt to be fetched in the Smyrna and 
Constantinople markets by rugs from districts where the pasturage is 
poor. In these places the weavers, to uphold the quality of their 
fabrics, are forced to use the fine pluckings from the goat's-fleece. 
These by lustre and softness, make partial amends for the quality im- 
parted only by the fine lamb's-wool. 

The availability of wool for textile uses is determined by the 
construction of the hairs. That which under the microscope presents 
the greatest number of serrations upon its surface lends itself most 
readily to weaving. In this regard much of the wool of Eastern 
Kurdistan excels even the famed Merino of Spain, or the equally 
praiseworthy Southdown. 

For rugs of the heavier quality, such as the ponderous Oushaks 
and Anatolians, the sheep of the Asia Minor plains produce a wool 
that is adequate in length, and, while coarse, as it must be, is quite 
soft to the touch and very even. 

The herding of the multitudes of sheep and goats over three 
millions of square miles of territory furnishes livelihood to number- 
less tribes of nomads, who pass a portion of the year in and about the 
towns and villages, and start out upon the ranges as soon as the sea- 
son is sufficiently advanced. The shepherd, setting forth at morning 
with his flock, carries wool, spindle, and distaff, in addition to proven- 
der and his indispensable arms, and whiles away the hours of the 
long day, twirling his spindle and singing to his own delectation the 
" songs of Araby and tales of fair Cashmere." 

Careful to single out the choice wool for their own uses, if they 
be rug-makers as well as flock-tenders, the shepherds pay strict atten- 
tion to the combing of the young lambs, which, at one season of the 
year, shed a fine undergrowth. This, when the clearing up of the 

35 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

wool is made, is placed with the fleeces of lambs sheared for the first 
time and choice parts plucked from the wool of the older sheep, and 
usually retained for the tribal chef dceuvre. In different parts of 
Persia this is called pas him or pasham, and is used in the making 
of the finest shawls and prayer-rugs. 

May is the shearing-time. These Eastern shepherds are deft 
shearsmen, and even more deft at sorting the several parts of the 
fleeces, detecting small imperfections in the portions ordinarily 
accounted best, and so distributing every handful that the yarn, when 
it comes to the weaver's hands, shall possess the evenness only to be 
secured by infinite skill and care in the handling of the wool. 

After the sale, which follows close upon the shearing, the prepar- 
ation of the wool begins. It is a complex process, first and last, and 
one which requires experience and painstaking almost beyond belief. 
The inhabitants of the several sections have different notions concern- 
ing the treatment. Methods which centuries of experiment have 
approved in one district are condemned in another as ruinous. It is 
altogether likely that there is that in the wools of the different growths 
which demands for them just the handling practiced in the localities 
where they are produced. 

The first step, after the sticks and other foreign substances have 
been dislodged, is the washing and scouring. As to the best way of 
doing this, too, opinions vary widely. In Asia Minor and throughout 
the Trans-Caucasus the wool is washed many times in cold water, 
without being allowed to dry between washings. When cleansed of 
dirt, and of the natural grease of the animal, it is placed in large 
granite mortars, called tubccs, and covered with a mixture of flour and 
water, or with starch. The men of the family pound and mix the 
mass thoroughly, with great wooden mallets. It is then taken out, 
placed in baskets, and in them washed again for two or three hours in 
a running stream, until the last trace of the starch shall have disap- 

36 



MATERIALS 

peared. This washing is of scarcely' less importance, in the eyes of 
the Oriental wool-handler, than the delicate operations of the dyers 
themselves. Much depends upon the quality of the water, and the 
superiority of one stream over another has been so thoroughly proven 
by successive generations that it is acknowledged without dispute. 
Soft water, of course, is the thing sought. Hard water necessitates 
the use of potash, which cuts the wool in such manner that when 
rugs made of it are brought into service they endure for only a short 
space. 

The washing over, the wool is exposed to the sun to dry. About 
this proceeding the Oriental is equally fastidious. A particular degree 
of warmth, a precise amount of sun, and wind from a certain quarter 
are relied upon to work a marked superiority in the carpet, and where 
the wool is intended for fabrics of the first quality, or is ordered for 
the execution of a farmaish (made to order), the wool-worker will 
wait for weather conditions to his liking. Even in the spreading 
there is a knack essential to the best results in the finished goods. 
The drying, besides being gradual, must be even. 

Refined by all these processes, the wool is weighed up, prepara- 
tory to picking and carding. There is a sad difference between the 
weight of the fleece as it comes from the shearer and of the residue 
after all the days of washing, scouring, and drying. About thirty per 
cent, is lost in actual dirt and probably thirty per cent, more in ani- 
mal oil, so that, though the average weight of a whole fleece, newly 
sheared, is about five pounds, it is a good one that nets more than 
two or two and a half. 

The old devices for picking or loosing the wool from the mats 
in which it is left after drying are as simple as they are odd. That in 
most general use is merely a huge bow, a strong, hardwood pole, 
seven or eight feet in length, strung with stout gut. This formidable 
weapon, subdued to purposes of peace, is suspended by its middle 

37 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

from the ceiling, so that the cord just touches the heap of wool. The 
picker is armed with a bell-shaped mallet, which he plies with period- 
ical staccato upon the bowstring, and by the vibration the wool is 
whipped loose and thrown on the opposite side, wisp by wisp. 

Another invention consists of a solid block, or sometimes a heavy 
wooden frame, from which protrude upward, in close rows, stiff, per- 
pendicular pins. The native, man, woman, or child, sits on the 
ground, Turk-fashion, and draws the wool again and again over and 
between these pins, a process which picks it apart and fits it for the 
spinning. This method is used only for wool which is of more than 
ordinary length. It was particularly in vogue until lately in those 
parts of Anatolia where the material is prepared for working in the 
heavy modern carpets. Europeans have now established two mills in 
Oushak, each of which cards about three thousand pounds of wool a 
day. They have practically done away with the old methods. 

The yarn hand-spun by the shepherds, in the open air, as 
described, is in great favor with the manufacturers, but the supply is 
small, since, as we have seen, the herdsmen, using only the selected 
wool, keep the yarns of their spinning for their own carpets. In a 
few towns there are shops where many hands are employed, but even 
in these the machinery is all of the primitive sort. The old-fashioned dis- 
taff and spindle are preferred, and the use of a wheel for spinning is as 
much of a concession as the Oriental will voluntarily make to mechanical 
progress. Attempts have been made from time to time, by European 
firms or their Eastern agents, to establish steam mills in connection 
with their weaving interests at Oushak and in other places. The 
proposition has always met with a loud protest from the wool-workers 
of the district, and the government, in paternal regard for its infant 
industry, has refused to lend a hand. 

The yarn, which is made in three grades, light for the weft, 
medium for the warp and heavy for the piling — though in very fine 

38 



MATERIALS 

carpets the light grade is taken for pile — is usually purchased by the 
firms for which the carpets are being made, and its cost checked up 
against the master of the looms, to be deducted from the money due 
on the completion of the work. This refers only to districts where 
the entire output is controlled by the European and American firms 
or their native middlemen. In the small villages inland, the native 
storekeeper, of whom mention has been made, advances the money 
for wool, or the wool itself, to his less prosperous townsmen. 

The use of goat's-hair in rugs is restricted by its wiry nature. It 
is apt to spin poorly, and packs unpleasantly when much trod upon. 
To the carpets made by the mountaineers, who employ it most, it 
lends a certain wild, shaggy appearance, thoroughly in harmony with 
their strong colors and crude patterns. Of late years, experiments 
have been made in mixing the goat's-hair with wool, but even thus the 
traditional obstinacy of the goat is not overcome, and the Kulah and 
Ak-hissar mohairs have not met with the success which such enterprise 
and ingenuity merit. The Angora hair, especially, is slippery and 
unworkable. There grows, however, on the goats raised in the 
lowlands of Asia Minor, the sand hills of Turkestan, and the highlands 
of Central Asia, a fine, silky fleece next the skin. It starts in the 
autumn, and if not cut falls out before spring.' Then, during ten 
days or a fortnight, the herd are subjected to the most thorough 
combing. With care and attention, perhaps half or three-quarters of 
a pound of this down can be obtained from each animal. From the 
best of it Kashmir shawls are made, and its use in carpet-weaving is 



1 " In Tartary, or Mongolia, the Saiga or yellow goat of Du Halde is found, the hair of which is 
much used in their rugs, and there also wander in flocks the argali or wild sheep (the mouflon of 
Buffon), producing the brown-gray wool of which the foundation is usually made, while the bactrian 
camel, whose habitat is in the wilds of Tartary, affords material for some of their most beautiful speci- 
mens. The camel sheds its coat annually, in the course of a few days, and its fleece is superior to that 
of any other domestic animal. The Usbek Tartars, moreover, have the finest wool of any people, those 
of Southern Persia only excepted, for they feed their sheep with great care and generally under cover, 
protecting them even when exposed, as we do our horses." — Robinsons "Eastern Carpets? 

39 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

illustrated in the finer Tartar fabrics — Tekkes, Yomuds, and Bokhara 
prayer rugs. 

Of the real, straight goat's-hair which can be utilized in piling 
carpets, by all means the best is theyF/zX-, known in European markets 
as peloton rouge, and sold in America for camel's-hair. It is of a 
light chestnut color, and is used without dyeing, to produce brown 
grounds, as, for example, in the Mosul and Hamadan rugs. 

Only on the plateaus of Eastern Persia, Afghanistan and Belu- 
chistan are camels found which produce a hair suitable for rug-weaving. 
They are shaggy beasts, but the undergrowth of their coat forms a 
sort of fleece, which, however, must be plucked instead of sheared. 
The processes through which this hair passes, to fit it for the weaving, 
are similar to those employed in treating wool. 

Of silk, little need be said, since the fabrics made of it are not 
here considered. It is silk the world over. It is produced in vast 
quantity in many districts of Persia, Central Asia and parts of Asia 
Minor. In Luristan it is one of the chief exports. In some sections, 
especially in middle Asia, the mulberry trees upon which the silk worm 
breeds grow wild in forests of considerable magnitude. Among the 
products of Samarkand are rugs of raw silk. Trial was made at 
Oushak of like material for heavy carpets resembling the woollen 
fabrics in size, design, and colors. It met with small success. The 
plentitude of silk has led to experiments of this sort in other Asia 
Minor districts. The latest has been in Csesarea, where, during the 
last year or two, great numbers of silk rugs have been turned out. 
They are copied from the Persian and old Ghiordes, or the conceits 
of European designers are used. The American market is as a result, 
flooded with these copies. They can be detected oftentimes from 
the fact that the pile inclines toward the top instead of the bottom 
of the rug, showing that they have been worked from the top to the 
bottom of the design. In copying, the original is turned, back toward 

40 



PLATK V 



Plate V. Bergamo Rig 

4-7 

Loaned by Mr. Robert L. Stevens 

This rug, one of the few specimens of the antique Bergamo, represents 
Asia Minor design at its best. The leaf and flower forms are unmistakable, but 
have been conventionalized in the manner referred to in the chapter on Design. 
In only two respects, so far as one is able to discover, is the Persian influence 
at all perceptible. There is something of Persian realism in the flowers which 
are stuck about the small medallions at either end of the field, in fact this same 
effect, so common in Asia Minor prayer rugs, is found in many fine Persian 
fabrics of centuries ago. The nomad element remains in the small separate 
flowers in the field, and suggestion of a latch-hook is had in the jagged edges 
of the long branches which extend from the central medallion. The rug i-^ 
glorious in color, and its combination of red, blue, yellow and pink belongs to 
an age that is bygone in the textile art of Anatolia. 



M ATERIALS 

the weaver, to facilitate counting the number of stitches in each 
color. The pattern rug is turned upside down because, the prayer 
pattern being prevalent, the apex of the arch furnishes a central 
point to work from, and the weavers, many of them unskilled, wish 
to secure this as early as possible in their progress with the fabric. 
The best silk carpets of Persia, patterned after the renowned fabrics 
of two or three centuries ago, are wonderful, but, like other light silk 
rugs, they are meant and chiefly used for hangings, and deservedly 
command very high prices. 



V 
DYERS AND DYES 

COLOR is the Orient's secret and its glory. 
These dark-skinned peoples, lagging so far backward 
along the pathway of civilization, mastered long ago the 
chromatic mysteries lurking in the shrubs of their deserts, the vines, 
leaves and blossoms which make these lands radiant, and they have 
guarded this subtle knowledge from foreign participation with greater 
care and jealousy than they seem to have exercised for their bodily 
welfare, or their place among races. The royal purple of Tyre, which 
the Phoenicians by some magic won from the molluscs of their seas, 
is virtually obsolete now. Science has found, in the refuse of facto- 
ries, gaudy hues to serve the purpose ; but the old dyes of the East 
still boast a splendor and lastingness which chemistry cannot coun- 
terfeit — a permanence emblematic of the countries where alone the 
marvel of their compounding has been understood. 

This preeminence in dye-working carries with it, in ©riental 
countries, a dignity almost akin to that of priesthood. As a tree is 
known by its fruits, the dyer has place among his fellows by his hues. 
In proportion as the color he excels in is valued in popular judgment, 
the dye-master is honored in his town ; and even if there were a lotion 
which could obliterate from dress and cuticle the traces of his trade, 

42 



DYERS AND DYES 

he would scorn to use it. His color is the badge of his ancient and 
honorable calling, dear to him as the insignia of rank to the soldier, 
or churchly black to the ecclesiastic. He glories in bemg bedaubed, 
and the shades of his particular color, upon hands, feet and raiment, 
are earnest of his skill. He is a walking sampler of his dyes ; the 
proofs of his proficiency are upon him. 

Traversing a village street in the East, you are aware of the 
dyer from afar off. Red, or green, or purple from head to heels, he 
challenges sight when he is yet half a mile distant. There is the pride 
of a sultan in his carriage, and in his soul, it is plain, a chromatic joy 
which religion cannot give. He is a fine bit of color against the tame 
background of the town. In baggy knee-nethers and white camisole, 
his head all swaddled in a mighty turban, and his fat leathern pouch 
for pipe, tobacco, knife, money and trinkets, belted about his middle, 
he is a type. But add to all these his dye, which in many values of 
the same color illumines him, from the crown of his turbaned head to 
the tips of his bare toes, and he is a radiant being such as Occidental 
civilization has not known, save upon circus days. 

The mind of this worthy is pervaded by a profound and, in a 
way, justifiable belief that he is the saving clause of the whole carpet 
industry. The mainspring of his life is the conviction that he really 
lends to the fabrics of his bailiwick, and of his native land, for that 
matter, all they possess of high aesthetic value. In his own view, he 
is the uplifter of an otherwise slavish and mechanical craft. Through 
him weaving becomes an art, and all the processes, from first to last, 
are merely incidental to the main affair — his coloring of the yarns. 
So he dips and struts his complacent life away, and to be an al boyaji 
— a dyer of reds — is to be one beloved of the Prophet. 

In great rug-weaving towns the dyers are many, but there is 
work for them all. In Oushak, the carpet centre of Asia Minor, there 
are probably one hundred and fifty, each with his specialty. If a place 

43 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

be blessed with a stream possessed of the magic solvent property 
upon which the excellence of Eastern colors so largely depends, the 
dye-houses are ranged close beside its banks, for the quality of 
water is even more vital in the mixing of dyes than it has been 
shown to be in the washing and scouring of the wool. The superiority 
of one water over another has been established by empirical processes 
continued over many generations ; and tests of other waters, for the 
solution of the Oriental dyes, in European cities, for instance, have 
resulted in an utter loss of spirit in the color. 

But this must not be construed as detracting from the marvellous 
skill of the dyers. The profession is hereditary in the East, and the 
tricks of it are handed down as almost sacred legacies from father to 
son. Each dyer, or, better, each family of dyers, has some peculiar and 
secret method of producing different shades, and there was sharp 
rivalry until the European came upon the scene, with his coal tar and 
his chemical formula^. 1 Since that time the native dyers have been 
a brotherhood, of which the pride of every member, and his more 
than reverence for his colors are the bond and the creed. Each 



1 "Aniline blue first appeared in i860. Less than a year afterward it took ten manufactories 
in Germany, England, Italy and Switzerland, to produce this material. 

" Whilst the manufacture of aniline colors thus became European, their consumption spread 
still farther, and now could be observed this unique fact in the history of commerce : the West sup- 
plied the East with coloring matter, sending its artificial dyes to the confines of the globe, to China, 
to Japan, to America and the Indies — to those favored climes which up to the present time had supplied 
the manufactories of Europe with tinctorial products. This was a veritable revolution. Chemistry, vic- 
torious, dispossessed the sun of a monopoly which it had always enjoyed. . . . 

" This reduction in the price of aniline colors is such that all manufacturers who use coloring 
matters have found it worth while to replace their former tinctorial products by these artificial colors. 
Besides this, the employment of these products has greatly simplified the formerly very complicated and 
costly operations and processes of dyeing, so that an apprentice can obtain as good shades as a skilled 
workman ; this facility of application has certainly not less contributed to the success of coal tar col- 
oring matter, than the richness and variety of the shades. . . . 

"Everything, therefore, leads one to imagine that ultimately the natural will yield entirely to 
the artificial coloring matters. This revolution, the influence of which will be most important, since 
it will liberate for the production of food many hands now employed in industrial operations, would 
already have taken place if the artificial colors hitherto discovered were as solid as their rivals." — 
Reiman's " Handbook of Anilines." 

44 



DYERS AND DYES 

knows that the aniline dyes of the West are no match and no substi- 
tute for his ; that many of the glaring hues of the coal tar have 
no durability, that in a carpet thoroughly wetted they will run and 
ruin the fabric, while his own handiwork will pass through a lifetime 
of exposure to sun and snow and rain, and grow in beauty as it nears 
the end of its usefulness. He believes, too, that the European is 
thoroughly awake to this difference. The great fear of his life is that 
by craft or subsidy the intruder will learn the secret. It amounts to a 
mania with him, and in all likelihood has some ground. This dread 
has a parallel in the anxiety felt by the managers of foreign carpet 
establishments, who lie awake at night in fear that the native weavers 
have stolen or are planning to steal the newly imported European 
designs. It is a perfectly reasonable fear, like that of the Oriental 
on behalf of his colors, for the Western patterns have great vogue 
among the natives, and the floors of the best houses in many towns, 
in Persia as well as Turkey, are covered with nightmares of West- 
ern color and device, to the exclusion of home-made fabrics. 

The colonization of the dyers just referred to is solely to se- 
cure water facilities, and not for the purpose of defense against intru- 
sion. Where the town water supply is not of a sort suitable for dye- 
ing, systems of earthern pipe bring water from some more or less re- 
mote stream in the hills, and discharge it into a giant basin in the 
middle of a square set apart by the municipality for the purpose. On 
the four sides of this square — boya khaneh — the dyers have their 
shops, with the all-important water in plenty just outside their doors. 
Dirty, ill-scented establishments they are, too — long, low buildings, 
with front rooms which do duty as offices and sometimes as bazaars 
for the vending of small articles. In the rear rooms, in long rows, 
stand twenty-five or thirty huge earthern jars, for the dying solutions, 
and a few deep copper kettles, in which the boiling is done. 

Passing from jar to jar, the dyer and his helpers, if his trade be 

* 45 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

extensive enough to require more than one pair of hands, dip the 
great skeins into one after another of the solutions, hanging each on 
a hook above the dye-jar to drain, before it is passed on to further 
immersion. It is an axiom that to secure the best results dye should 
never be wrung from the skein, as this causes uneven distribution. 
This system of successive dippings in several colors is one of the 
dye-master's secrets — the overlaying of color upon color, a blending, 
accomplished in the wool. 

The great display of skill, after the actual decocting and mixing 
of the fluids, lies in accurate estimation of the length of time that a 
yarn should be subjected to each solution. It is upon precisely the 
same principle, and altogether as delicate and important a task, as 
the timing of a photographic plate. Away at the back of each shop 
is a ladder leading from the dye-room to the roof, where the yarns 
are hung to dry. How long a dyed skein should hang in the sun is 
another question of moment. Passing through the square, on a 
bright day, you may see the dyers, sitting on the roofs of their es- 
tablishments, staring at the suspended skeins. As long as the yarn 
hangs there, the master stands sentinel. There is a particular instant 
when the sun's work is done, and done properly. When it comes, it 
finds the dyer on guard, and he hurries the skein to cover in a twink- 
ling. A minute too soon, or a minute too late, and the rest of his 
professional existence would be "fast gray." 

All these complexities of his craft this accomplished artisan car- 
ries in his head. He keeps no tell-tale book of recipes. In a frame 
in the outer room are displayed the different tints of which he is 
master. The number of them is bewildering. It is not unusual for 
an al boyaji to be skilled in some hundreds of shades of red, any one 
of which he can set about compounding at a moment's notice, with- 
out thought of reference to any "aids" or "authorities." 

The price he sets upon his work is small enough. The country 

4 6 



DYERS AND DYES 

people pay the dyer's charges in wool, but where money is the 
medium, the cost of dyeing in the most expensive red is only about 
twelve cents to the pound, for blues seven or eight, and other colors 
as low as five. The dyer of blacks is at the foot of the craft. The 
prices are stationary, and competition never takes the demoralizing 
form of " cut rates." When employed upon salary, a competent dyer 
receives about ten dollars a month and boards himself. An assistant 
— not by any means a tyro at the work — can be had for half that 
sum. Women seldom take any part in the dyeing. 

It is apparent from the condition of the pile in old rugs, that 
some dyes corrode and rot the yarn, and others preserve it. An 
Eastern dyer, if blindfolded, can "read "the pattern of an antique 
carpet by the touch, as accurately as a blind man reads his raised-let- 
ter Bible. Blacks seem to be most corrosive, and red, of all the other 
dyes, most preservative.' 

The basic elements of the dyers' " materia " are known to almost 
ever> r Oriental, for they grow in the home fields, and great work is 
made of their cultivation, gathering and sale, though the new genera- 
tion is being educated to use the dyes of Vienna and Berlin. The 
shepherds and other inhabitants of remote districts make for 
themselves the few simple colors needed in their rough carpets, but 
of the methods of compounding for more delicate and fanciful 
shades, the every-day Oriental knows nothing, and there are hun- 
dreds of materials, growths of their own localities, which the dyers 
gather and convert into coloring agents, the precise value and use of 
which are, to the common herd, among the mysteries. 

The distinctive feature of the old Eastern dyeing system was 
that nearly every tingent was of vegetable or animal origin, and that 

1 In parts of Persia and India dyers habitually wash the yarns in a solution of lime before apply- 
ing the dyes. The object of this is to increase the brilliancy of the colors, but its principal effect is to 
make the yarn brittle and materially lessen its wearing quality. Where this treatment has been em- 
ployed, an expert can usually detect it by feeling the pile of the rug. 

47 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

similar ingredients were employed for mordants or fixatives. The 
treatment of the yarn with borax, saltpeter, tartar, copperas and the 
like had not been known. The native dyers held to the merits of the 
old-fashioned mordants — valonia, pomearanate-rind, sumac, divi-divi, 
and the barks of different trees, from wnich they had for so long ob- 
tained such renowned results. I 

In some newly made fabrics, notably those from out-of-the-way 
parts of the East, the dyes are found to be thoroughly up to the old 
standard, but in most quarters they have been sadly debauched. 
The introduction of the chemical mordants was the first fruit of 
increased foreign demand, and first step in the decline of quality. 
The Eastern governments warred energetically against it. In one 
part of Persia it was ordered long ago that a dyer convicted of using 
aniline preparations should have his right hand cut off by way of 
punishment. The mandate seems, however, not to have made a very 
deep impression. The loud, flaring, unnatural colors continued to 
appear in plenty in rug consignments, and passed in this country for 
vegetable with all save the few who could detect their falsity. In 
spite of this, mendacious salesmen have all along declared, in guaran- 
tee of good faith, that the law was enforced to the letter. 

Here is what may, I think, be considered good authority for 
declaring that it was not obeyed at all. It is an excerpt from the edict 
issued by the Shah of Persia, on January ist, 1900. The necessity for 
wide distribution of the law throughout the realm and for its enforce- 
ment upon the notice of foreigners as well as natives, resulted in its 
being printed in French as well as in the Persian dialect. It prohibits 
several things. I have translated and transcribed, from the copy given 
me in Tabriz, only such portions as bear upon the matter of rugs. 

In the name of the Merciful God ! 
Let thanks be given to that Supreme Being, and praise to His Sacred Prophet, 
to the Holy Family and to their Companions. 

48 



< 



DYERS AND DYES 

We, Mozaffer ed Din, King of Kings, Absolute Sovereign of the Empire 
of Persia, 

Whereas upon different occasions Our Glorious Father, Nasser ed Din 
Shah, whose memory is illustrious and revered, desiring to maintain the fine 
quality of Persian carpets, the fame of which is universal, forbade the importa- 
tion of aniline dyes, which certain persons use to give a meretricious coloring 
to carpets,' 

And whereas it has come to Our knowledge that these prohibitions, as well 
as some others, are frequently disobeyed by Persian subjects as well as stran- 
gers, and since it is necessary therefore to restate them, and at the same time 
give power to punish whoever shall violate them hereafter. For all these rea- 
sons We utter the present law : 

Article I 

It is forbidden to bring into the kingdom : 

Aniline dyes, whether in dry or liquid form, as well as all coloring materials, 
whether dry or liquid, into which aniline enters as a component. 

Article IV 

Any importation, likewise any exportation or attempt at exportation, 
made either in violation of Article I of this law, shall be followed by seizure 
and confiscation of the goods. 

Furthermore, if the goods prohibited from entrance or exit have not been 
declared or regularly presented at the office of customs, or if the said goods 
have been hidden among other goods, or concealed in any manner, the persons 
transporting them shall incur jointly and without any reference to their claims 
upon one another, a fine equal to the value of the goods, independently of the 
seizure and confiscation of the prohibited articles, as well as of those which 
have served to conceal them. 

In case of importation or exportation by routes not running to a custom 
house, or at a point upon the coast where no office of customs exists, the fine 
shall be double the value of the merchandise, and the means of transportation, 
ships, boats, beasts of burden or vehicles, also the other goods imported or ex- 
ported at the same time, shall be confiscated. Furthermore, the persons, 



1 " The importation of aniline colors, whose insidious brightness was tending to seriously dam- 
age the trade, has been prohibited, but it is still advisable for an intending purchaser to apply a wet 
cloth to test the fastness of the colors before concluding the bargain." — E. Treacher Collins : " In 
the Kingdom of the Shah." 

49 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

whether authors or accomplices, sharing in the offense, shall be punished by a 
year's imprisonment. 

Article V 

The means of transport, ships, boats or beasts of burden, which have been 
used in the importation or exportation of prohibited goods, are specially liable 
and subject to seizure as security for fines incurred by virtue of the preceding 
article, and in default of payment of the said fines within thirty-one days after 
the discovery of the offense, they shall be sold for the purpose of obtaining the 
sum due. 

Article VI 

Persons against whom it shall be proven, in any way whatsoever, that they 
have participated in the importation or exportation of prohibited goods, 
whether in ordering, buying or selling such goods, or arranging for their trans- 
portation, or in any other way, shall be subject to the same penalty as those 
who have directly violated the provisions of this law. 

The value of the confiscations and the amount of the fines thus incurred 
may be levied upon the movable or immovable property of the offenders. 

Proceedings taken under this act must be officially brought to the notice 
of the defendants within two years, at latest, from the commission of the 
offense. 

Article VII 

Articles of merchandise seized or confiscated by virtue of this law shall 
be sold for the benefit of the Imperial Treasury, with the exception : 

I. — Of aniline colors. . . . Such articles shall always be burned or 
destroyed publicly no later than the day following the seizure, in the presence 
of the chief of customs, of the governor or his representative, and of such other 
persons as it shall be possible to gather together. A certification of the de- 
struction shall be made immediately and signed by all the persons present. A 
copy thereof shall be sent to the person upon whose complaint the seizure was 
made, and another sent immediately to the chief of the customs service at 
Teheran. 

Article VIII 

Any agent or employee of the government, any collector of customs or 
employee thereof, who shall be convicted of having permitted, tolerated or 

50 



DYERS AND DYES 

favored in any manner whatsoever the importation or exportation of prohib- 
ited articles, shall be punished by imprisonment for a period not less than one 
and not more than three years, according to the gravity of the offense; and, 
moreover, he shall be liable, by his goods and chattels, movable and immov- 
able, for the payment of a sum equal to or double the amount of the fines and 
confiscation provided in the preceding articles against the authors of frauds 
of this sort. 

Article IX 

Rewards in money, to be deducted from the amount of fines and confisca- 
tions, may be given by the Central Administration of Customs to agents and 
employees who shall have discovered or furnished proof of violation of this 
law, and also to any person who shall have given to the administration infor- 
mation leading to the discovery of such violation. 

Article X 

All violations of this law must be established by an authentic certificate 
drawn up with all possible promptness, by at least two employees, and this 
proof shall be forwarded with all possible haste to the office of the customs 
bureau, which shall have power to collect the fines, the amount of confisca- 
tions, and to exact the corporeal penalties incurred. One of the copies of the 
proces verbal shall be sent to the chief offender, who must sign it or acknowl- 
edge its receipt, and the other copy shall be sent as soon as possible to the 
officer of customs, who alone shall have power to grant a reduction of penal- 
ties, if there be circumstances which warrant measures of clemency. 

Article XI 

This law shall take effect three months after the day of its signing by Us. 

We order that it be printed in all the newspapers of the Empire and 
that copies be sent to the Ambassadors, Ministers or Charges dAffaires 
accredited by Us, and further order Our SadrAzame to take the measures 
necessary to assure its execution. 

Given at the Palace of Teheran, the 15th day of the month Ramazan, in 
the year 13 17 of the Hegira, Jan'y 1, 1900. 

MOZAFFER ED DIN. 

By the Shah, The Sadr Azame, Amine Sultan. 

How great a supply of Persian rugs of recent manufacture, dyed 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

with anilines, remains to be disposed of, it is impossible to say, but 
the Persian government, through its Belgian custom-house officials, 
at whose suggestion the edict is said to have been issued, is enforc- 
ing the prohibition to the letter. Since the law took effect, several 
large consignments of anilines have been seized and destroyed. 
Unless there be a pitiful backsliding, it is not too much to prophesy 
that within two or three years the Persian rugs will be found to have 
improved greatly in point of coloring, and it will no longer be dan- 
gerous, as it is now, to wash them, even in clear water, for fear some 
of the dyes will run. 

The government's step was a radical one. That it was deemed 
necessary is made plain by the fact that this law is the first promul- 
gated by the present Shah since his accession. 

The best expression of the dyer's skill is undoubtedly found, as 
has been said, in reds. In what apparently contradictory colors the 
yarns are dipped, to lay a foundation for the ultimate shades of red, is 
past finding out. Madder, the root of rubia tinctorum, ground and 
boiled, is a basis for a multitude of the reds of the Eastern carpets. 
Its flowers, too, are steeped, and the liquid made from them fer- 
mented, to secure some extraordinary shades of this color. The red 
most common in Persian fabrics is made by combining alum-water, 
grape-juice and a decoction of madder, and drying the yarn in a par- 
ticularly moderate sun. Many degrees of redness, from pale pink to 
intense and glowing scarlet, can be made from madder alone, by 
different treatments, and in combination with other materials it plays 
a part in half the hues which appear in Eastern carpets. One of the 
oldest of Oriental dyes is sheep's-blood, from which, by secret 
method, a rich and enduring vermilion is obtained. 

Another material for deep red is kermes, a variety of coccus 
insect found upon oak trees about the Mediterranean. The normal 
color produced from it is a rich carmine. It is one of the oldest of 

52 



DYERS AND DYES 

Oriental dyes, but it has been supplanted, in a measure, by the 
Mexican cochineal, which, after the conquest of Mexico, and the im- 
portation of its product into Spain and thence into the Orient, took 
its place as an Eastern dye. This is used for the most flaming reds, as 
well as in combination with other materials to give quality to tamer 
shades. It is more brilliant than the native kermes, but the Eastern 
dyers say, not so permanent. With the old vegetable mordants, it 
produces a comparatively fast dye. In dilution with madder it pro- 
vides scarlet, cherry and various degrees of pink. There is a min- 
eral kermes, an artificial sulphite of mercury, which borrowed its 
name to fit its brilliant color, and is not to be confounded with the 
insect dye. In recent years, many reds have had for basis the dye- 
woods — Campeche wood, Brazil wood, and others — which have been 
engrafted upon the Oriental system. Rich pink shades are often 
had from the rochella or orchil, a lichen which grows on the rocks 
around the Eastern seas. Singular reds are also obtained from 
onion skins, ivy berries, beets and a multitude of other plants, of 
which only the dyer knows the secrets. 

The great majority of Eastern blues have for a basis indigo, 
which for the hundreds of shades used is compounded with almost 
every other dyeing material known in the Orient. In Persia, dyeing 
with indigo is accounted as high an art as is the science of reds in 
Turkey and Bokhara. 1 

The principal yellows are obtained from Persian berries, which 
although they are indigenous to Asia Minor, attain a greater size and 



'"It seems strange that processes should be lost for producing articles, by a people who 
actually continue to manufacture without interruption the very objects into which these processes 
enter. Yet we repeatedly find such a result occurring in the history of civilization. There never has 
been a time, for ages, when the Persians have not been manufacturing rugs, during all which period 
they have been manufacturing their own dyes; and yet within forty or fifty years the secret of making 
the superb blue color which distinguishes the finest examples of old Persian tiles, illuminated manu- 
scripts and rugs, has fallen into disuse, and no one seems now able to reproduce it." — S. G. W. Ben- 
jamin; " Persia and the Persians." 

53 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

a more pronounced yellow color in Persia; from turmeric, the extract 
of the East Indian root curcuma, and from saffron and sumac roots. 
The turmeric yellow is not of itself a thoroughly fast color, but im- 
parts a life to other shades when used in combination. It serves as a 
mordant for certain dyes, and owing to its instant change to brown, 
when brought into contact with any alkaline substance, is used in 
chemistry as a test for alkalis. Some yellow shades are produced 
also by combination of the wood dyes and saffron roots and flowers 
and a variety of ochra plant. 

Indigo, in combination with the yellows, furnishes most of the 
greens used by the old native dyers. With the buckthorn, or 
rhamnus, it produces the Chinese green, and with turmeric and the 
Persian berries, a wide range of intermediate greens, both bright and 
dull. 

The deepest shades of brown are obtained by dyeing with madder 
over indigo, as the deep Persian blue is secured from applying indigo 
over pure madder. Wood brown and camel's-hair brown result from 
the use of madder with the yellows. In Anatolia, this has been ac- 
complished lately by use of the orange aniline colors. Gallnuts also 
enter largely into the making of the browns. 

The densest blacks, which are little used except for outlining 
patterns, and defining border stripes, are made chiefly from iron fil- 
ings, with vinegar and rind of pomegranate and sometimes with the 
addition of Campeche wood. Gray shades are secured by the use of 
Smyrna gallnuts. 

The schedule of purples is one of the richest in the whole realm 
of Eastern dyes. The different red ingredients mentioned above are 
used in combination with indigo, and the dye woods and the rochclla 
tincturus play a large part. The thoroughness with which the Ori- 
ental dyers have canvassed the whole field of substances to discover a 
new material for establishing or modifying colors is shown in the com- 

54 



DYERS AND DYES 

bination for a popular shade of violet. It starts with a mixture of 
milk and water, in exact proportions, then madder is added in certain 
dilution, and lastly, the whole is converted by sour grape juice. A 
great many shades of purple, heliotrope, lavender and the like are 
secured from the bodies of marine insects and molluscs. 

This outline will serve to indicate the honesty which dominates 
the old Oriental coloring. It can only suggest the great variety 
of materials employed, and the consummate skill required in the 
blending. Vine leaves, mulberry leaves, myrobalans, laurel and 
angelica berries, artichokes, thistles, capers, ivy and myrtle — all things 
that grow within the ken of the dyer — have been tried to their utmost 
as possible color-makers and color-changers. Many of the growths 
are cultivated by the dyers upon their small acreage, in the intervals 
of their momentous labor in the shops. 



VI 
DESIGN 

RUGS are written pages. In their maze of design is a symbol 
language, the key of which, in its ceaseless transmission 
through the centuries, has unhappily been all but lost. 
The variation of its forms, in the different classes of fabrics, may be 
looked upon as dialectic ; and it must be believed, so far as the very 
ancient figures are concerned, that none of the dialects is understood 
by the weaver who employs it at the present day. 

" Whatever their type of ornamentation may be," says Sir 
George Birdwood, " a deep and complicate symbolism, originating in 
Babylonia and possibly India, pervades every denomination of Ori- 
ental carpets. Thus the carpet itself prefigures space and eternity, 
and the general pattern or filling, as it is technically termed, the fleet- 
ing, finite universe of animated beauty. Every color used has its 
significance, and the design, whether mythological or natural, hu- 
man, bestial or floral, has its hidden meaning. Even the representa- 
tions of men hunting wild beasts have their special indications. So 
have the natural flowers of Persia their symbolism, wherever they are 
introduced, generally following that of their colors.' The very ir- 

1 " The colors white, yellow, green, blue, red, and black, in cases of the dominant color of 
deities and sacred animals, of the Sun and Moon, were not chosen haphazard, but according to the 
symbolic significance which the Egyptians were accustomed to attribute to each color — the idea of joy 
was connected with white and green." — Brugsch: " Mythology." 

56 



PLATE VI 









Pi ATE VI. Ax : RSI VN k('<; iSll.K.) 

From the Marqitand Collect 

While the color arrangement — wine-red ground and green border— is that 
common to Isaphan carpets of the Sixteenth Century, the design is of an en- 
tirely different nature from those emanating from the capital. It is far more 
likely a product of middle or northern Persia, for in it, though unlike in colora- 
tion, may easily be traced kinship to the row designs of Feraghan, which we 
know under the names of Herati and Guli Hinnai. In the alternating rosette 
and palmette in the border there is clear prophesy of the Herat border. There 
are certain textile characteristics suggestive of Sehna. as the shape also is, but, 
as I have said in notes upon the Marquand collection, it is impossible to make 
hard and fast local classification of a rug woven when Persia was in a state of 
such continual change, and artisans in large numbers were being transferred 
from place to place, taking with them their methods and designs. The work 
may have been done at Kashan or perchance in Resht, but that it foreshadow* 
the Feraghan and Sehna of to-day there is little doubt. 





















.|..*-" ■■*):><»■*% ■*.*<?"& *?^r_ *:#.* *-o^ *o **;$ 



«».;^-!: U 


















- Y'>| * .-SiP^i V £ V 






.*>;- 









j? l^*VStf£ 









;*»£*&&&*$ 



'' 



' 






■"*"" y< 



=; 



DESIGN 

regularities, either in drawing or coloring, to be observed in almost 
every Oriental carpet, and invariably in Turkoman carpets, are sel- 
dom accidental, the usual deliberate intention being to avert the evil 
eye and insure good luck." 

This utterance, which, coming from so profound a source, may 
be looked upon as revelation rather than poetic license, enables the 
lover of Eastern fabrics to weave for himself, from the curious and 
seductive shapes and the soothing harmonies which they embody, a 
bright and altogether exalted picture of the mental and spiritual life 
of the Orient. Abhorrincr a vacuum, the Eastern, at his highest 
mark of artistic capability, filled the blank space which was his bit of 
eternity with a fulness of warmth and beauty which spoke for him 
then, and as an enduring fabric speaks for him now, as a man whose 
intimations of a glad immortality never ceased until his fingers grew 
weary at life's loom, and the earth claimed him. 

But study of the Oriental of earlier times, by the carpets which he 
made, must needs be mainly a study of the upper class, of the nobles 
in whose palaces and by whose designers and weavers the finer pieces 
were produced. Exhibition, publication, expert analysis and compar- 
ison of the oldest and most perfect of these carpets, which in any 
country and any era must have taken rank as art productions, have 
shed invaluable light on the course of artistic impulses in the East, 
three or four centuries ago. They have revealed in its most impres- 
sive phase the high seriousness of Eastern races. They have opened 
a field of study which becomes wider and richer with every moment 
of consideration. 

In view of the teachings of these famous fabrics it must for the 
more popular purpose be accounted a misfortune that time has left 
few if any authentic examples of the commoner rugs of extremely old 
date. Actual comparison, therefore, of the fabrics exported from the 
East and sold in American markets to-day, with those made for 

57 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

every-day use hundreds of years ago, is practically out of the ques- 
tion ; but so closely do the very fine modern rugs, particularly some 
of the Persians, preserve features of the wonderful old carpets in the 
European collections, that it is fair to presume that the rougher and 
more common varieties cannot differ greatly, in color and design, 
from those of the olden time- 
There was, authorities declare, a period of climax in the highest 
order of Eastern carpets ; and with equal candor they concede that 
even prior to the decline noticeable in our own time, there had been 
a marked degeneration, extending possibly over centuries. It was 
first manifest, they say, in the decadence of the pure curve, in a ten- 
dency to leave broad surfaces of ground color, in an abandonment of 
the perfect coordination which had given poetic unity and a de- 
lightful atmosphere of completeness. Then, from many of the car- 
pets disappeared the central design so essential to artistic composi- 
tion. Rectilinear drawing of the vines and creepers banished the 
softness which had been the chief charm of the Persian fabrics. The 
floral patterns gained in geometry as they lost in grace. Over all 
was evident a relapse from exalted artistic conditions, a barrenness of 
life, a decline of ambition. The exact period of climax has not yet 
been fixed. For most of the superfine antiques which remain in ex- 
istence, the critics hesitate to assign a date, or even to point out 
definitely the locality of manufacture. 

It seems safe to conclude that decay in art, if it was decay, 
was contemporary with national decline : that when the Eastern 
nations passed out of apogee the record of the transition was writ- 
ten on their fabrics. But there are those who deny the decadence, 
who maintain that the perfection reached in these weavings was 
foreign, not Eastern ; that it was the sacrifice of native truth and 
originality to strange artistic tenets. They hold that the standard 
was meretricious, and that what is termed decadence was only a 

5S 



DESIGN 

natural and wholesome reversion to older and more authentic 
Oriental types; a return from Italian schooling to the ancient spirit 
and designs. 

Commenting upon a piece displayed at the Vienna Exposition 
in 1889, which showed in a marked degree the tendency to rude 
rectilinear treatment, while preserving much of the Persian richness, 
a celebrated European authority said : " Have we in the peculiar 
floral design before us, which is so different from the Persian style 
of the fifteenth century, an example of ancient or modern industry ? 
Is it the coarseness of an early style, or is it the weakness of decay- 
ing art, which meets us here in a garb of so little attractiveness?" 
This halting of one so thoroughly informed illustrates the tantalizing 
doubt which pervades the whole study of textile design, and which 
constitutes perhaps its greatest charm. But if it be true that " sym- 
bolism goes out as art reproduction increases," that the Persian 
masterpieces, beautiful though they be, are false to Oriental theory, 
are merely imitations of the ornate Italian method, supplemented by 
all of grace and richness that the Persians could bring - to it, then the 
return, evident in later fabrics, to rude masses of color, and bolder 
and older designs, must be looked upon merely as a final triumph of 
the inherent over the acquired. And it must give to all the ruder 
Oriental fabrics a value which has been overlooked in them, if not 
denied to them, by the apostles of the " high school." If the general 
declaration that there is a symbolic meaning in all carpet designs be 
well founded, the fabrics of the commoner class must share in it. 
And if it be also true that what the critics who measure all values by 
Western [standards call decadence is really a reversion to genuine, 
though perhaps " semi-barbaric," Oriental forms, then the rugs made 
by the native for his own use, necessarily free from the influences 
which invaded the art of the palace, must be considered a pure type, 
and expressive of Eastern meanings. It is this class of rugs that we 

59 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

get to-day, or rather did get, before the West began its mercantile 
invasion of Asia. 

Freest of all from outside modifying influences are, we must be- 
lieve, the carpets made by the nomads. Far below the high-class 
Persians as exponents of artistic status, the products of the mountain 
districts and steppes outrank many of those in point of consistency, 
and are to be prized as truthful reflections of the native life and 
character. Perhaps less of credit is to be accorded to the nomad 
weavers for having adhered stubbornly to their distinctive colors and 
patterns, since, inhabiting the deserts and waste places, courting and 
knowing no contact with society other than their own, they have met 
with no temptation to vary the character of their handicraft, or to stray 
into the fields of strange design in quest of some device better calcu- 
lated to attract the notice of buyers. They are races which do not 
change from decade to decade. Their life is the same grim routine 
century after century, varied only by periods of strife and perfectly 
welcome bloodshed. Therefore their product, being, at least until 
very recently, made for their own uses, and not to fit the tastes or 
purses of Western decorators and housekeepers, has remained un- 
altered. The designs are, or were, tribal property, almost as unmis- 
takeable as an accent. 

Despite the roughness of these peoples, despite their ignorance 
of artistic precept, there is manifest in their work an aesthetic realiza- 
tion of the consistencies, an accurate, intuitive sense of color value, 
which makes them, where bold, intense color effects are required in 
decoration, useful as the dainty and intricate Persian can never be. 
There is admirable harmony in their arrangement, in spite of what 
strikes us instantly as garish and eccentric. Gaudy they may be 
called, even astounding, but the genuine examples, in which the old 
dyes have been used, are never inconsistent, never shocking ; and 
they have the merit, rare nowadays, of being simon pure. 

60 



DESIGN 

In these carpets of the nomad races may be distinguished one 
characteristic sign — the filling up of vacant spaces in the ground with 
small, disjunct figures. This is, according to the best authorities, a 
mark whereby the nomad influence may be traced in rugs which in 
general pattern and coloring conform to more urbane models. The 
accomplished Persian weaver of the high school, with a blank space 
to fill, would traverse it with continuous trailing vines and creepers, 
of Greek, Chinese, or Arabic derivation, adorned at intervals with 
delicate flowers, perhaps until his deep red or Persian blue " eter- 
nity" was a veritable garden plot of posies. Not so the nomad. 
When he employs flowers for such a purpose, he first robs them of 
stem, and hurls them upon his ground as if next moment they 
were to be trampled under foot. He is no artist, but his vigor is tre- 
mendous, and record of it is left in wool-yarns upon the carpets of his 
making, as well as in stout strokes upon the skull-piece of his adversary. 

Consistency is as decisive a virtue in an Oriental rug as in 
human conduct, and the lesson to be read so plainly in some of these 
nomad rugs is one that may well be borne in mind in judging the 
merits of the finer varieties. Any really good fabric should stand the 
test of consistency. Those which do not are those which fail to in- 
terest as soon as they have ceased to be new. Only long and careful 
study of the forms of design can supply the knowledge requisite for 
making this test thorough, but the briefest acquaintance with a few 
good specimens of the various groups should enable any person to 
detect the utter incongruity of the unrelated patterns which so often 
make war upon each other from the ground and from the border of 
one and the same carpet. 1 Rug designs need not be complex to be 



1 Among very old fabrics are found examples made without border and consisting of a diaper or 
some complete design, bounded only by the edge of the carpet itself. These are oddities, and are 
most rare. A piece is occasionally found from which, for some inexplicable reason, the borders have 
been cut away. Examination of the edges will show whether it is an original " all-over carpet" or a 
haggled fragment. 

61 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

good, but they should preserve their types to take rank as worthy or 
desirable examples. 

The derivation of many of the ornament forms is a matter still 
so much mooted that this warning against incongruities should not 
be too strictly construed. It is impossible at this day to select any 
number of rug patterns from the multitude in use, and classify them 
as belonging exclusively to any single group of fabrics, or to any lo- 
cality. The decorative art of the East is of too old a growth. Its 
beginnings are too deeply hidden in the shadows of an earlier age, 
its journeyings too manifold. In some learned quarters there is a 
tendency to derive from a common source all figures known to pure 
ornament. Professor Goodyear maintains that every decorative de- 
vice had its birth in the lotus, that the figures in modern rugs, as 
well as all the forms of architecture, are descended from the lily of 
the Nile, emblem now, as in the old Egyptian days, of regeneration 
and immortality. Such a proposition is too thoroughly archaeological 
to come at all within the province of this book. It is certain that un- 
questionable lotus forms played a large part in the Assyrian system 
of ornamentation, and that they appear with the selfsame treatment, 
almost without modification, in many Persian rugs. That transmis- 
sion is entirely within the view of history. And with sometimes 
more and sometimes less of alteration the same arrangement is found 
in numberless rugs made in districts remote from the present bound- 
aries of Persia. It is not to be wondered at. The whole Eastern 
country has been a highway for race movements, and well nigh every 
decorative design has in the mighty interchange become universal 
throughout the East; but the intense conservatism which has until 
now repelled the advances of Western art has served a useful pur- 
pose in this matter. The peoples of different parts of Asia and Asia 
Minor have developed characteristics — -treatments, modes of draw- 
ing, arrangements — which for the time at least pass as essentially 

62 



DESIGN 

their own; and wherever the old figures have wandered, they have 
been modified, adjusted to local theories, and made to conform to the 
local color scheme in such manner that they are practically part 
of the system into which they have been adopted. Where this 
has not been done the carpets are mere bald composites, and have 
lost much of their artistic charm thereby. 

In any endeavor to classify the various fabrics, even tentatively, 
on a basis of similarity of ornament forms alone, sight must not be 
lost of the fact that much of the territory where these rugs are made 
has quite recently changed hands, and while therefore some carpets 
are sold under new classification, the character of the people and the 
fashion of their workmanship remain as if they had not passed from 
one rule to another. Perhaps the best that can be done in the way 
of broad characterization is to say that the Caucasian, Turkish, and 
Tartarian or Turkoman fabrics are geometrical, while those of the 
Persians, and the Indian whose impetus and education are Persian, 
are realistic and floral. This general distinction will serve as a pre- 
mise to consideration of the rugs of commerce. It is by no means 
meant that the floral element is absent from the Caucasian, Turkish, 
and Turkoman fabrics. On the contrary, they abound in flowers, 
but the genius of these countries has made the blossoms largely 
rectilinear. Caucasia and Turkestan have converted the forms of 
nature into geometry. The Anatolian weavers have conventionalized 
the Persian flowering vines and the flower and tree forms. Save for 
the distinctively Persian " pear " or " crown jewel " device, in the fill- 
ing of some Kabistan, Tzitzi and Mosul rugs in the Caucasian class, 
and the pure forms in the Herati, — which is, as a matter of fact, Per- 
sian, — the designs have lost their Persian character upon crossing 
into Anatolia or over the northern or eastern borders. 

Remarkable ingenuity has been displayed in the conversion of 
many of these features. To preserve the swaying vine effect found 

6 3 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

in the borders of the Persian, for example, the designers of the 
Ghiordes and Kulah rugs have utilized the stems of their leaf pat- 
terns. The direction of these is alternated so that a perfect, although 
somewhat angular undulation is produced. So delicately is this ef- 
fected that quite protracted study of the rug may be made before the 
arrangement is noticed. Nor does distance seem to have stood in 
the way of this interchange of patterns. To all the Mediterranean 
coasts Asia Minor taught the form of textile art which it had learned, 
and took in return whatever notions they had of decoration. To this 
day little Turkish children sleep under coverings which had their 
patterns long ago from Morocco. 

It is not strange, again, that Chinese fretted patterns should be 
found scattered over the central fields and ranging in the borders of 
the rugs of Samarkand, Kashgar and Yarkand, and in the borders of 
some other Central Asian carpets. These regions, situated in the 
direct line of travel across the continent, have always been affected by 
the Chinese influence ; they are in large part populated by tribes 
speaking Mongol dialects. But it is more puzzling to find that the 
Chinese fret is intimately related to the Greek key, which is in the 
border of many old rugs made in Asia Minor, and which in carvings, 
frescoes, and every other form of ornament, is recognized the world 
over as a distinctly Hellenic property. The apostles of common 
origin in decoration make the way clear of such annoyances. For 
example, Professor Goodyear declares that the Chinese fret and the 
Greek meander alike, wherever found, are only rectangular exacrgera- 
tions of the curling leaves of the lotus. 

Owen Jones says that Chinese art is in essence Mohammedan, 
that it is Chinese only in treatment ; that the Moors of the present 
day decorate their pottery under the same instruction, and follow the 
same law as do the Chinese in their vases. Chinese pottery, he adds, 
suggests the Persian both in flowers and creepers. As indicating the 

64 



PLATE VII 



I'l \ n VII. Shtrv \\ R 

Loaned by Mr, Reginald II. Bulley 

In shape, design and coloring, this is a most singular Caucasian product 
and an unusually good one. It has not, of course, the fine texture of some of 
the Persians, but in every respect of craftsmanship it is admirable. It is 
a town product, without any of the nomad grotesqueric. The animal creation, 
so much drawn upon for patterns by Caucasian weavers, is represented, but 
not in the laughable, realistic manner common. A decorous procession of or- 
derly scorpions ranges through the outer border, and for guard stripes about 
this, small tarantula shapes thoroughly conventionalized. Inside this appears 
the wine-glass border, and inside this again, the well-known " reciprocal " 
device in blue and red. Then we have what would ordinarily be called the 
field, covered with a peculiar diaper design— white on a red ground— but there 
is a panel in the centre of the rug, that converts this outer portion into another 
border. Little can be divined of the origin or significance of these inner pat- 
terns except the tree of life, and the presentment of this is thoroughly Tur- 
anian. The rug resembles the Bergamo and certain Turkoman fabrics in its 
extreme width, but in character it is Caucasian throughout, and the finishing 
mark it as of Shirvan or Eastern Karabagh. 



DESIGN 

extent to which archaeology must be consulted in the endeavor to 
trace the journeyings of the rug patterns from one part of the East to 
another, the following, from the same author, is eloquent : 

'Buddhist art, and contemporary Hindu art, ornamental and 
otherwise, date from a time when Greek influences dominant in the 
Punjab and Indus countries, spread to southern India, and these were 
preceded by Persian and Assyrian." 

And further : " At a later date Hindu art became saturated with 
Mohammedan lotus patterns. These were all originally borrowed in 
the countries conquered by the Mohammedan Arabs during the 
seventh century A.D. — Syria, Egypt, North Africa and Persia. The 
Arab art was, therefore, ornamentally based on the Sassanian Per- 
sian, and these systems, again, drew their lotus patterns from Graeco- 
Egyptian and Egypto-Persian sources." 

Professor Jones does not sustain the claims of the lotus to the 
universal parenthood of all ornamentation, but, doubt though we 
may that interesting contention, the origin of the lotus as a carpet 
pattern, and much of the traveling by dint of which it came to be 
impressed upon the art of every country in the Orient, are here made 
sufficiently clear. And in spite of the changes which centuries have 
brought, the lotus forms have been more faithfully preserved in 
Persia than in any other part of the East. It was in Assyria and 
Babylonia that, having been transmitted from Egypt, perhaps by the 
Phoenicians and Hittites, whose palaces were copied by the Aryan 
kings, they seem to have been first crystallized in ornament, and there 
they have lived, almost in their original purity. In a few typical 
forms the lotus is found in present day Persian carpets. There 
seems reason for classing the palmette, so called, and the rosette 
among these, though the palmette is held by some authorities to be 
a Greek form, and to have had its derivation from the human hand 
with all the digits extended ; by others it is derived directly from a 

65 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

palm growth. The closed bud which in old wall-tiles, as well as in 
modern rugs, alternates with the rosette or the palmette, forming a 
variation of the " knop and flower " pattern, is merely the nascent 
form of the lotus. It is significant that the forms which show indu- 
bitable kinship with the lotus are chiefly used in border designs, thus 
binding and unifying the life story told in the body of the carpet, 
with an unbroken succession of the emblems of eternity and renewed 
being — the bud, signifying birth, and the full-blown flower, the com- 
pleteness of age ; the creeper typifying the long repetition of the life 
process which separates and yet unites the two. 

The life idea finds expression, too, in the tree forms, which seem, 
viewed as Aryan creations, to have had their origin in the lotus ; 
though the versions traceable to Turanian sources would appear to 
represent some other growth. " From the earliest antiquity," says 
Doctor Rock, " a tradition came down through Middle Asia, of some 
holy tree, perhaps the Tree of Life spoken of as growing in 
Paradise." 1 According to Birdwood, "it is represented on the com- 
monest Spanish and Portuguese earthenware, by a green tree that 



1 The diversity of tree forms found in rug designs is almost limitless, and animal figures are 
presented in connection with the trees, in all the manifold fashions born of varied mythological and 
religious beliefs. A recent writer, borrowing from the pages of Washington Irving, has thus described 
the "tuba," the tree of paradise, representation of which is frequent in the more pretentious of the 
Persian rugs : 

" On the right hand of the throne on which Allah sat, his face covered by twenty thousand veils 
lest the brightness of his countenance should annihilate the beholders, was a tree whose branches ex- 
tended over a space greater than that between the sun and the earth. About it, angels were more 
numerous than the sands of the seashore or the beds of the streams, and rivers rejoiced beneath its 
shade. The leaves resembled the ears of an elephant and immortal birds flying amidst the branches 
repeated the sublime verses of the Koran. The fruits were milder than milk and sweeter than honey, 
and all the creatures of God if assembled there, would find sufficient sustenance. Each seed inclosed 
a houri provided for the felicity of true believers, and from the tree itself issued four rivers, two flow- 
ing from the interior of Paradise, and two issuing beyond it and becoming, one the Nile, and the other 
the Euphrates." 

There is often found, too, what is by some called the tree of punishment, with an animal's head 
at the end of each branch. 

There is "another tree, representing a feature of the first of Mohammed's heavens, in which 
angels, in the form of animals, intercede for the animals upon the earth. 

66 



DESIGN 

looks exactly like a Noah's Ark tree." "Sometimes, on Persian 
rugs," he adds, " the entire tree is represented, but generally it would 
be past all recognition but for smaller representations of it within the 
larger. In Yarkand carpets, however, it is seen filling the whole 
centre of the carpet, stark and stiff as if cut out of metal. In Persian 
art, and in Indian art derived from Persian, the tree becomes a beau- 
tiful flowering plant, or simple sprig of flowers, but in Hindu art it 
remains in its hard architectural form, as seen in temple lamps and in 
the models in brass and copper of the Sacred Fig as the Tree of 
Life. On an Indian bag it is represented in two forms, one like a 
notched Noah's Ark tree, and the other branched like the temple 
candelabra." 

As showing the tenacity of the old forms, consider what is 
known in rug design as the Herati pattern, or more commonly the 
"fish" pattern. It is found in perfect purity still, in the rugs of 
Herat, some of them so new that they still bear the odor of the wool- 
pen ; also in the Sehnas, Feraghans, Khorassans and Kurdistans, 
and in rectilinear form in pieces from Afghanistan. Its feature 
is a rosette between two long, curved leaves, in which some imagina- 
tion has discovered the resemblance to fishes. This has given the 
device its name, though it has by some authorities been traced di- 
rectly to very old Chinese heraldic emblems. The pattern is in any 
case an ancient one, and whether or not, in some older day, the fish, 
sacred to I sis and later to Venus, was intended in these lancet-leaf 
forms, is open to question ; but the presence here of the lotus, 
emblem of fecundity, suggests such a possibility. The fish pattern is 
not found in the body of the rugs unless it be in comparative purity, 
as a diaper covering all or a considerable part of the central field. 
In this diaper it alternates with a square or diamond-shaped rhom- 
boidal arabesque device in such manner that the " row " effect is 
perfectly maintained. There are two forms, rizeh and darisht, fine 

67 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

and coarse. In the Herat carpets the coarse form is used. In the 
Feraghans, Sehnas, and Khorassans the diaper is most compact. 

There are other elements equally enduring. Take, for example, 
the " pear " pattern. For this device, which has been so widely em- 
ployed throughout the East as to be almost universal, Professor 
Goodyear also claims a lotus derivation, but the foundation of the 
claim is not so clear as in the cases of some other figures. The 
"pear" seems to have intimate and original association with Persia, 
since it is in the Persian fabrics that it is most freely used. There is, 
indeed, hardly any variety of Persian or Kurdistan fabrics which 
does not display it. In the Sarabands and some Shiraz examples it 
covers the whole field. In the Khorassans it is used in most complex 
arrangement. Adopted into the rugs of other countries it follows a 
rectilinear form which shows that it is anything but indigenous. 

There are many theories concerning the precise origin of the 
pattern ; to some it is known as a " palm," to others as a " river 
loop," supposed to represent the bend of the river Jhelum in 
Kashmir, or, again, the Ganges. This meaning is chiefly accepted 
where knowledge of the device is obtained from Kashmir or India 
shawls. In these the figure is much elongated, which adds greatly 
to its grace ; it is an exaggeration of the long forms found in the 
rugs of Khorassan, and is adorned after the Khorassan manner, 
though with far greater elaboration. 

The popularity of the shawls in America antedated that of Ori- 
ental rugs by something like a century ; hence the pear shape, which 
in connection with shawls is still called the cone, has popularly been 
supposed to be purely Indian. There is little doubt, however, that 
the pattern, like the shawl itself, is Persian, and was carried into 
Kashmir by the Iranians when they went thither in the seventh 
or eighth century, taking with them their arts and their an- 
cient Zoroastrian faith. This is further borne out by the fact that 

68 



DESIGN 

the manufacture and use of shawls, of a sort similar to those made by 
the people of India and Kashmir, are still common among their kins- 
men in Kirman, in southern Persia. 

The " river loop " theory, therefore, seems to be without warrant, 
and wholly local. An explanation more plausible and consistent, and 
from a source which invokes credence, is that given by Iskender 
Khan Coroyantz, Imperial Commissioner for Persia at the Chicago 
World's Fair, and interpreter to the late Shah, Nasr ed Din, during 
his travels in Europe. He declares that the device represents the 
chief ornament of the old Iranian crown, during one of the earliest 
dynasties; that the jewel was a composite one, of pear shape, and 
wrought of so many stones that, viewed from different sides, it dis- 
played a great variety of colors. If this explanation be correct, it is 
easy to understand the ornamentation of the pattern, which in the 
shawls, and to a certain extent in the rugs of eastern Iran, reaches 
such perfection. But it is not to be supposed that the shape was 
chosen for such perpetuity without symbolic or religious reason. 
Taking into consideration the deep devotion of the ancient Persians, 
there is no room to believe otherwise than that the crown-jewel shape 
represents, in its first meaning, the flame which they worshipped and 
which is worshipped to this day by their posterity in India and south- 
ern Persia. This view is born out by Sir George Birdwood in his 
" Arts of India," where he calls the device the " cone or flame." 

I have selected, from the names applied to this figure, that of 
"pear" pattern, not because it has any historical or symbolical 
accuracy, for it has none ; but because the image it conveys is more 
clearly apprehended by the Western mind ; it is what the shape 
suggests, throwing meaning out of the question. 

Efforts to fix the derivation of the fretted ornaments have been 
many. Some of them have been disregardful of the universality of 
symbolic patterns, for insisting upon which there seems now such 

69 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

abundant reason. Ch. T. Newton calls attention to certain coins 
from Priene, as indicating that the Greek key pattern symbolized 
the river Maeander. Birdwood, again, says in his " Indian Arts" : " I 
believe the swastika ( J-C ) to be the origin of the key pattern orna- 
ment of the Greek and Chinese decorative art." Support is given to 
this theory by a Chinese diaper pattern exhibited on pottery in the 
British Museum, and reproduced in Hulme's " Principles of Orna- 
mental Art." It is a mere multiplication of the swastika in its 
simplest form, no other element appearing. Agassiz, in his mono- 
graph, says : " The original motive of the Meeandrina Phrygia is 
given us by leptodea, and many species of madrepores. The 
leptodea of the Persian Gulf show the patterns which ornamentalists 
call Greek — the wave patterns which surround Chinese, Persian and 
Arabic manuscripts." A remote derivation, and one, it seems, hitherto 
unsuggested, is the device used so freely in the carvings of the Maya 
temples in Yucatan and other parts of southern Mexico. It is there 
construed, by men who have spent years in the study of these extra- 
ordinary ruins, to be of serpent derivation, but its kinship to the 
Chinese and Greek forms is too plain to require argument. The 
claim made for Yucatan, that it, and not any part of Asia, was the 
cradle of the race, has startling substantiation in many of the orna- 
ment and architectural forms, and traces of religious belief which 
have endured there to this day. 

Colonel Thomas Wilson, of the Smithsonian Institution at Wash- 
ington, has published a scholarly and interesting monograph on the 
" swastika," in the introductory pages of which he says : " No con- 
clusion is attempted as to the time or place of origin, or the primitive 
meaning of the swastika, because these are considered to be lost in 
antiquity. The straight line, the circle, the cross, the triangle, are 
simple forms, easily made, and might have been invented and rein- 
vented in every age of primitive man and in every quarter of the 

70 



DESIGN 

globe, each time being an independent invention, meaning much or 
little, meaning different things among different peoples or at different 
times among the same people ; or they may of had no definite or 
settled meaning. But the swastika was probably the first to be made 
with a definite intention and a continuous or consecutive meaning, the 
knowledge of which passed from person to person, from tribe to tribe, 
from people to people, and from nation to nation, until, with possibly 
changed meanings, it has finally circled the globe." 

A multitude of authorities are quoted in Colonel Wilson's book, 
each attributing what he conceives to be the swastika's significance, 
and a multitude of illustrations show the forms this mysterious, prehis- 
toric sign has taken, and the variety of objects it has adorned, in dif- 
ferent parts of the world. It has been found in nearly ail prehistoric 
ruins, in the temples of Central America, and the Indian mounds of the 
United States, as well as on the stone ware of Europe and the buried 
ruins of all the East. It has passed out of use in modern times 
among nearly all Christian nations. 

Colonel Wilson says further : " The swastika mark appears both 
in its normal and ogee forms in the Persian carpets and rugs. While 
writing this memoir, I have found in the Persian rug in my own bed- 
chamber, sixteen figures of the swastika. In the large rug in the 
chief clerk's office of the National Museum, there are no less than 
twenty-seven figures of the swastika. On a piece of imitation Persian 
carpet, with a heavy pile, made probably in London, I found also fig- 
ures of the swastika. All the foregoing figures have been of the 
normal swastika, the arms crossing each other, and the ends turning 
at right angles, the lines being of equal thickness throughout. Some 
of them were bent to the right, and some to the left. At the 
entrance of the Grand Opera House in Washington, I saw a large 
India rug containing a number of ogee swastikas; while the arms 
crossed each other at right angles, they curved, some to the right, 

71 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

some to the left, but all the lines increased in size, swelling in the 
middle of the curve, but finishing in a point. The modern Japanese 
wistaria work-baskets for ladies have one or more swastikas woven in 
their sides or covering. 

" Thus it appears that the use of the swastika in modern times is 
confined principally to Oriental and Scandinavian countries, countries 
which hold close relations with antiquity ; that, in western Europe, 
where in ancient times the swastika was most frequent, it has, during 
the last one or two thousand years, become extinct. And this in the 
countries which have led the world in culture." 

Discussing its prehistoric existence over such wide area of the 
earth's surface, Colonel Wilson builds wholly upon the theory of 
migration. He says: "The argument has been made, and it has 
proved satisfactory, at least to the author, that throughout Asia and 
Europe, with the exception of the Buddhists and early Christians, the 
swastika was used habitually as a sign or mark or charm implying 
good luck, good fortune, long life, much pleasure, great success, or 
something similar. The makers and users of the swastika in South 
and Central America, and among the mound-builders of the savages 
of North America, having all passed away before the advent of his- 
tory, it is not now, and never has been, possible for us to obtain from 
them a description of the meaning, use, or purpose for which the 
swastika was employed by them. But, by the same line of reasoning 
that the proposition has been treated in the prehistoric countries of 
Europe and Asia, and which brought us to the conclusion that the 
swastika was there used as a charm or token of good luck or good 
fortune, or against the evil eye, we may surmise that the swastika sign 
was used in America for much the same purpose. It was placed upon 
the same style of object in America as in Europe or Asia. It is not 
found upon any of the ancient gods of America, nor on any of the 
statues, monuments or altars, nor upon any sacred place or object, 

72 



PLATE VIII 



■ 

s 



i VIII. Oi n Ki'rbjsii I 

n A nt /tor 

What mastery of coloring the unschooled mountain Kurd possesses, this 
unusual piece of carpet goes far toward showing. Moreover, in almost every 
respect it illustrates the best Kurdish spirit in design and workmanship, 
repetitive feature, which is in highest favor in Kurdistan, is here brought out. 
both in field and border. So also, is the fine skill in shading, in which t; 
people have always excelled, but which, unfortunately, is being wholly aban- 
doned in the newer rugs. No system of color reproduction — even one so effi- 
cient as that here employed — can bring out all -that the weaver has actually 
accomplished with an exceedingly small schedule of color in the central field. 
There is a simple honeycomb pattern repeated, with a small flower figure 
within each cell. Only three colors are used — yellow for the ground, blue for 
the outlines and red for the flower, with a stitch or two of white and blue in 
the centre ; but an alternation of sunshine and shadow, regardless of the light 
in which the rug lies, is effected merely by the weaver's manipulation of the 
yarns — the addition of a knot of blue here and there, or, on the other hand, the 
substitution of a knot of yellow or red, and. to complete the result, a trimming 
of the yellow and red yarns shorter than the blue. When the rug is looked at 
from a distance the yellow is hidden and the shadow of blue is intense. This 
throws the yellow and red in other parts into yet stronger contrast. 

Something of the effect may be secured by holding the plate horizontally 
on a level with the eye. This will also bring out strongly the manner in which 
the color diversions in the border have been adjusted to coincide with the 
centre. This border has a more extensive range and variety of colors than 
almost any rug the author has ever seen. Some minute spots of faint ci 
have been unavoidably lost in reduction, but the color process ha-; almost mir- 
aculously retained the effect of them. 



DESIGN 

but upon such objects as indicate the common or every-day use, and 
on which the swastika, as a charm for good luck, would be most ap- 
propriate, while for a sacred character it would be most inappropriate." 

Thus the emblems of the older faiths are popularized in the orna- 
ment systems of the whole world to-day. Their very endurance 
speaks their fitness to endure, and to become universal, even in im- 
perfect forms. The harmony of which they are an expression has in 
some mystical way seized upon the imagination of the West, and taken 
the place of later conceit, which finds in ingenuity alone its claim up- 
on the fitful fancy of mankind. All that is not ephemeral in design, 
all that does not lose vogue in a season, seems to be directly trace- 
able to these old, symbolic devices of the East, which have outlived 
the passing of nations and of creeds. 

Allusion has been made elsewhere to the manner in which rue 
designs travel from one part of the Orient to another. Until one has 
been among the weavers and rug dealers of Persia, it is impossible to 
realize how thoroughly established and universally recognized the great 
majority of designs have become, how much more of a trade than 
an art is most modern weaving. The native designer copies 
and modifies. His originality stops with the petty changes in draw- 
ing or color made in some old design. In the first place the parts of 
the design have names, which are known to weavers everywhere. 
The main ground, for instance, is metnih ; the band of solid color on 
the outside of the rug, tevehr ; the narrow stripe just inside that, 
zinjir, or chain ; the small border stripe, bala-kachi ; the middle or 
main stripe is ara-khachi ; the corners, lechai ; the lines dividing the 
stripe, su, or water ; the outlines of all designs, kherdeh. These are 
only terms used to indicate parts of the rug. Then with each com- 
plete design known by a name, the Oriental might, if he only would, 
order the most elaborate carpet without the expenditure of more than 
fifty words. It is necessary to dictate colors only for the principal 

73 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

parts of the design. The color of the smaller elements is usually left 
to the weaver's judgment, except in big factories. There the European 
or Levantine manager controls the distribution of colors even down 
to the smallest vine and leaf forms. 

The Perso-Turkish word for design is tcrch. An echo of the 
days when the weaving was done under viceroyal auspices is found in 
the names by which many of the standard terehs are known. There 
is, for example, the tereh Shah Abbas, one of the most beautiful and 
at the same time simplest of the ancient designs. While floral in 
character, it is a complete departure from the complex flower and 
vine masses common in fine Persian fabrics prior to the reign of the 
Great Shah. Its flowers, laid broadly in yellow, red and blue, and 
with only the smallest display of connecting vines, were of good size 
and in a way conventional, and stood out clear and fine upon a plain 
ground of the richest blue. They are really modifications of the al- 
ternating palmettes and rosettes found in the old borders. There 
still remain in the possession of some fortunate collectors, in this 
country as well as in Europe, old Shah Abbas pieces, worn to the 
woof but with the abiding vestiges of color still luminous. I have 
known a Persian who paid thirty dollars — and gladly — for a fragment 
of one of these old Shah Abbas rugs, not more than fourteen or 
fifteen inches wide, and perhaps two feet long. He drew it tenderly 
and with indescribable pride from his strong-box, and turned its vel- 
vety surface back and forth in the dim light of the bazaar, saying : 
" Now I have a real model. I shall see if the weavers of to-day are 
failures or not." The Shah Abbas pattern is still made in rug fac- 
tories, but in most cases it bears the name only by courtesy. It is 
merely a jumble of disjunct floral figures in coarse weaving and usu- 
ally execrable colors, crowded into the field of some huge carpet in a 
fashion that seems little short of mockery after one has looked on the 
chaste beauty of the old fabric. 

74 



DESIGN 

Another design, which has so much of the decorative quality of 
the Shah Abbas that some of its floral figures seem like a plagiarism, 
is the tereh Mina Khani — named for Mina Khan, long ago a ruler in 
West Persia. In this the flowers, alternate red, yellow and particol- 
ored red and blue, are joined by rhomboidal vines of rich olive green, 
so as to form a diamond arrangement. In the old versions of this 
design there is left an abundance of the blue ground. The main 
borders also carry large flowers in soft colors. The narrow stripes 
often show the reciprocal figures of the Karabaghs. In the moderns 
the figures are crowded as in the Shah Abbas, and the lustrous quality 
of the colors has given way to the loudness of the anilines, which 
when years have passed over the carpet become dull and worse than 
unattractive. 

The Sardar Aziz Khan, once a governor in Azerbijan, was also 
parent to a design, which still bears his name — tereh Sardar — but 
reflects no particular glory on his memory. It is common in the 
present day carpets, and is particularly adapted to the modern re- 
quirement in heavy design. Its principal element, by which it can 
be distinguished instantly, is the use of ridiculously long, narrow leaf 
forms, united by vines and relieved by bold floral shapes. The de- 
signer seems to have taken his first inspiration from the Shah Abbas, 
and added the great leaves, in place of slender vines, as a sort of sign 
manual. 

The favorite substitute for the fish pattern in the fine old Fer- 
aghan rugs was the kindred tereh Guli Hinnai — or Flower of the 
Henna design. Henna is the plant with the extract of which the 
Persians dye their beards, hair and finger-nails in such extraordinary 
shades of red. The Guli Hinnai design presents a small yellow 
plant shape, set in rows, and with profuse flower forms uniting them 
in diamond arrangement, something after the manner of the fish pat- 
tern. The treatment of this in the Feraghans makes it resemble the 

75 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

Herati diaper, though it is richer by reason of the predominance 
of red. 

Turunji means "like a sour orange." It is the name given to 
all pronounced medallion rug designs with curved outlines. Tereh 
Sihbih — apple pattern — is a Kurdistan design, in which conventional 
elements bearing only the remotest resemblance to fruit are arranged 
in perpendicular rows in the ground. These are only a few of the 
names in vogue, but they will serve to show how thoroughly stereo- 
typed the carpet designs of the East have become. 

Before leaving this subject attention should be called to one 
salient feature of Oriental carpets, which may otherwise be misun- 
derstood to the discredit of many a desirable fabric, and the loss of 
many a collector. In some admirable rugs faults of design will be 
noticed, departures from the evident scheme, which would ordinarily 
be unexplainable except upon the ground of carelessness of work- 
manship. These are the " irregularities " referred to by Sir George 
Birdwood, and though incomprehensible, as he elsewhere says, to the 
formal Western mind, their significance, so cogently pointed out by 
him, should in many instances lend value to the carpet in which they 
occur, instead of going to condemn it. 

The most remarkable case of divagation in design that has ever 
found its way into this country, is a rug which recently passed through 
the hands of an importing firm in New York. Where it has gone, or 
who has become its possessor, I do not know. This extraordinary 
carpet, which is so erratic that it defies classification, has perhaps 
a history which would be well worth the writing, if it could 
ever be learned from that distant East out of which it made its way 
hither. It is some four feet wide by seven in length, of extremely 
heavy, firm and admirable workmanship, and though it has the appear- 
ance of having been made by sewing together scraps of rugs of widely 
different varieties, was found upon examination to be one piece, and 

76 



DESIGN 

perfect in every way save one. It is begun after the pure Sarakhs 
design, in fine harmony of field and border. About eighteen inches 
from the beginning, the field pattern is abruptly changed to the most 
perfect Feraghan ; the Sarakhs border is continued. Then, as 
suddenly, after ten inches more of progress, the inner stripe of the 
border is abandoned, cut off short, to make more room in the field, 
and for the Feraghan body is substituted a great and gaudy design 
upon a pale ground, which cannot be recognised as belonging to any 
type. In this last pattern the carpet is finished. 

Whether this eccentric composition is a work of more hands 
than one, each succeeding weaver having put into it the pattern which 
seemed to him or her noblest ; or whether it is a witness to the ability 
of some versatile Oriental to work well in several designs ; or whether, 
again, it tells of a task taken up by a second weaver, after the death of 
its beginner, and, the second havingf been removed, another undertak- 
ing the labor of its completion, who can tell ? It may be a pattern piece 
for several designs ; it may be a " hoodoo " rug, or it may, on the 
other hand, be an extreme example of the irregularity of which the 
learned Englishman speaks, a carpet which some superstitious Per- 
sian has made to cover the grave of his progenitor, hoping that its 
exaggerated oddity would indeed " avert the evil eye " and vouch- 
safe an undisturbed repose. 

There is one more trick of design in Eastern carpets, which to 
many will necessitate a word of explanation. Of Western apart- 
mental arrangement the weaver of the Orient had in the beginning, 
little or no conception. The topography of his own home, to fit which 
his carpets were created, was of an unvarying order. It is this, by 
the way, which explains the prevalence of long, narrow shapes in so 
many varieties of imported rugs — the shapes which are called " run- 
ners " in our market, and are used chiefly for stair and hall coverings. 
The floor of the Eastern room is mapped into four sections, and for 

77 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

these four pieces of carpet are constructed. In the middle a wide 
strip, two narrow strips along the sides of this, and a fourth across 
the end, upon which the master of the house sits at meat, with room 
at his right hand and left for the guests of honor, or perchance his 
favorites, while persons of lesser importance occupy places upon 
the divans at the sides. 1 Knowing no floor scheme save this, the 
Oriental, when the dealers in Western markets called upon him for 
carpets of great size, wrought all four strips into a single piece ; and 
in the large trade collections these vast and extraordinary objects are 
sometimes found. Historically, they are of value, for they are the 
triclinia, or (later) triclinaria, upon which the ancient East lay at 
its feasting. But they have no place in our scheme of furnishing, 
and, though they are woven, oftentimes, in the most skilful fashion, 
and are bought at great cost by persons in quest of the eccentric, 
they look to the novice like so many bits, sewn together with a purpose 
not altogether rational. 

Confronted with these archaic creations the Western firms were 
forced to take the designing of the whole-carpet sizes into their own 
hands. There were needed indeed fabrics which, while they covered 
the requisite space, should, at the same time, preserve the completeness 
of design and color scheme which marks the smaller rugs. With this 
in view they provided sketches of what they wanted, and contracted 
with the Oriental agents for the making of the big, heavy pieces, 
the production of which has now grown to such vast proportions in 
different parts of the East. It was first tried in Asia Minor, and 



1 Occasionally there are found, principally in modern coarse Hamadans, what are known in 
Constantinople as keosseh (corners). These are merely quarter sections of large designs, woven as com- 
plete fabrics, and for oddity, more than aught else, used in small rooms, where two sides are taken up 
by divans, canopies, and other adjuncts or that modern hodge-podge, the "cosy corner." They are 
well adapted for this purpose, since the quarter of the central medallion common to the Hamadans 
covers the 8oor under the canopies, and the rich borders are displayed outside. Of late, also, some 
round pieces have been produced, in silk, chiefly if not altogether from the looms of Tabriz. They are 
meant, of course, for table covers, and some of them are well designed and deftly wrought. 

73 



DESIGN 

proved so successful that Western designers are now stationed at 
weaving centres in Persia and India, as well as in Anatolia. The con- 
ceits of these gentlemen, following in general the theory of the East, 
but combining the designs of the various types or supplying Occi- 
dental features, in such manner as to please the Western fancy or 
accord with other Western decorations, are registered as the pro- 
perty of the firms. It has been the custom of the native weavers 
to appropriate them, but the governments, after long insistence and 
the invocation of consular influence, have decided that the regis- 
tration shall protect the design, and that to violate it shall be a 
punishable misdemeanor. 



79 



VII 
WEAVI NG 

NOW for the weaving, the patient, painstaking labor at which 
so many hundreds of thousands of swarthy fingers are flying, 
and have been flying since the days of the Pharaohs. 
Measured by results it is a wonder work ; watched, in its tireless 
repetition of three simple processes that a child can master, it seems 
no more of an art than the constant turning of an hour glass — which, 
in fact, to myriads of these Eastern people, it is. The whole thing 
is simple, to look at, to read about ; but there is, nevertheless, some 
peculiar spirit, some mental drift, some inherent and mysterious fit- 
ness pervading and governing their work, which makes these Orientals 
the best weavers in the world. Peoples of other races have reared 
looms, and dyed yarn, and, borrowing the tricks of color and of stitch 
from Turkey and Persia, have striven to work out upon the warp a 
harmony as rich and full as theirs. But they have failed. The Eng- 
lish scholar has perhaps hit upon the truth when he says: "Anti- 
quity, from its being nearer than we are to the divine origin of things, 
was ever mindful to symbolize in its sublime art the truth of the con- 
viction that the green circle of the earth and the shining frame of the 
out-stretched heavens are but the marvellous intertexture of the veil 
dividing between the world we see, and the unseen, unseeable world 

80 



WEAVING 

beyond. This is the reason of the vitality, the dignity and power of 
giving contentment, possessed by the arts of the world of antiquity, 
with which the arts of the modern world of the West will never be 
indued until they also become animated by the spirit of the pristine 

faith of every historical race in the old world For all the 

technical instruction which may be given, and all the luxurious illus- 
trations of typical Eastern examples that may be published, no truly 
great carpet will ever be produced in Europe until the weaver's heart 
is attuned to sing to the accompaniment of his whirring loom, in grate- 
ful unison with ever}' voice in Heaven and earth : 
" Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth ; 
" Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory. Glory in the highest." 

Unlettered as are the great majority of the Oriental weaving 
class of to-day, there is little doubt that the religious element here re- 
ferred to makes up a recognizable part of their existence. At no 
moment, even of their working days, is the consciousness of their 
faith absent from them. A race, every being of which, whether 
learned or ignorant, has prayers five times a day, no matter where he 
be, must, in the very nature of things, have an abiding faith in the 
nearness of the Deity. While not daring to question the infinite 
value of such inspiration, it is difficult, for one who accepts the 
Mosaic doctrine of Divine retribution, to understand how any 
Oriental weaver, under these circumstances, has survived the sub- 
stitution of the modern enormities for the conscientious work he was 
wont to do. However that may be, it is not to be disputed that 
there is some faculty which to this day enables the Orient to excel 
the West in hand-wrought fabrics, even with uncouth appliances such 
as that same West has long ago outgrown. 

Any lad, with a knack for carpentry, can make such a loom as 
that upon which the Eastern does his weaving. Plain, absurdly 
primitive, it endures for a lifetime, or many lifetimes, and its timbers 

81 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

are often adorned with carvings done by hands long since still. It 
is in essential principles the same old-fashioned structure that is pic- 
tured on archaic tiles and vases ; the same that we know to have been 
used for thousands of years in the weaving of coarse cloth and can- 
vas. The method, too, is the same in its rudiments, with the addi- 
tion that instead of throwing the weft across the warp compactly, to 
make a thin, firm web, the knot upon the warp is employed to form 
a surface, and the weft becomes merely a binder, holding each row of 
knots close-pressed to its neighbor. This addition of the pile to the 
primitive web is believed to have originated with some of the tribes 
of Central Asia, where severity of weather made warmth a desidera- 
tum. 

Some looms are plain, stationary, oblong frames. The majority 
of those in use in Asia Minor consist of two upright beams of wood, 
heavy or light according to the weight of the fabric to be woven. 
They are fixed parallel to each other, and the distance between them 
limits the width of the rug. They support at the top a roller, the 
ends of which turn in holes bored in the beams of the frame, or in 
deep notches across their upper ends. 

To this by a rod which fits in a groove upon it, are fastened the 
warp-threads, forming the basis of the fabric. Ancient looms are rep- 
resented as having a weight attached to the end of every warp-thread 
to hold it taut, in which case the weaving must have been begun at 
top. It is said to be so done in obscure hamlets of India and of far 
northern Europe to-day, but in Persia, Turkey, — in fact generally 
throughout the rug-weaving countries, — the primitive system is re- 
versed and the rows of knots begin at the bottom, for which purpose, 
and to insure firmness, another roller or crossbar is placed there. 

Several methods are in vogue for arranging the warp upon its 
frame. They are all upon one of two general principles : First, that 
of having the weaver shift position, mounting higher abreast the loom 

82 



WEAVING 

as the fabric grows ; second, having the work pass downward before 
the weaver, by aid of the rollers at the top and bottom. In the first 
method the crossbars are, of course, immovable, save that to the 
lower one a little play is given so that as occasion demands the warp 
may be tightened by the aid of wedges. 

For the second system, again, two methods are employed. The 
first is to wind the warp-threads on the top roller, and unwind them 
as needed, rolling the finished carpet up on the bottom roller as the 
work progresses. The second is to have the carpet pass over the 
bottom roller and up again at the back, the warp being a continuous 
thing, like a belting. 

These looms upon which the warp moves to meet the weaver are 
used in a horizontal position in many parts of the East, notably in 
Sehna and about Bijar, and the weaver sits at the end. In these the 
carpet is regularly rolled along as it increases. The Bijar weavers 
actually sit on the finished part of the carpet as they weave. The 
nomads in Luristan, Kurdistan, and other grazing districts, when they 
have turned out the sheep and goats upon the range and pitched 
camp for the grazing season, erect stationary upright frames to endure 
until winter drives them from the place. Rude things these nomad 
looms are — mere trunks of trees, roughly trimmed, with the shanks of 
the lopped-off branches left to support the rollers and the flimsy scaf- 
folding upon which the tawny women of the tribe sit at their weaving. 
Sometimes a ladder is placed perpendicularly at each side of the loom, 
and the plank upon which the weavers perch is moved upward from 
rung to rung as the work goes on. The looms built indoors for use 
in winter reach from floor to roof-timbers. 

The warp in real antique rugs is, or was, in most varieties, woollen. 
The exceptions to this rule were the fine fabrics, where silk or cotton 
was used for flexibility, and those made by the nomads in districts 
where goat's-hair was plentiful and was, therefore, taken for the 

83 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

groundwork, while the wool was saved for the piling, or for sale. 
In these latter days cotton has come to be used much in the webbing, 
mainly because it is cheaper. In the old-time rugs the material of 
warp and weft was one of the chief means of determining the 
locality of fabrication. This was most useful, since, as is elsewhere 
explained, many patterns were so widely adopted that only by the 
character of the ground-threads, oftentimes, could the fabric be iden- 
tified as the product of any particular town or district. Nowadays 
even the most thorough experts are deceived by the frequent substi- 
tution of cotton for warp or weft in localities where formerly only 
wool was used. 

In India, owing to lack of wool, hemp is much employed ; 
linen also plays a noticeable part. In America, where " Turkish " 
and " Persian " rugs alike are made, cotton, linen and hemp are put 
into the foundations for thrift's sake. The evil of a hempen ground- 
work is that under stress of wear and wetting it rots, and from a 
little break in the web the entire fabric is apt to go pieces speedily. 

It is the custom among weavers of many localities to dye the 
ends of the warp-threads for some distance, so that the carpet may 
have for finishing at the ends a web of red, or blue, or both. This 
dyeing is done after the warp is complete. When the colored ends 
of the threads are dry the whole warp is fastened upon the loom and 
drawn taut by the wedges: supplied for the purpose, above the ends 
of the lower rollers. Where stationary and rollerless looms are used, 
the jointure of the lower cross beam — known as the " piece-beam " — 
with the side-beams is made in an elongated slot, so that this tight- 
ening can be accomplished without difficulty. 

It becomes needful, when the weaving is fairly under way, to 
separate the warp into two sets of threads, front and back. For this 
purpose two rods are used ; one, about an inch and a half in diameter, 
to which every other thread of the warp is attached, but not so tightly 

84 



WEAVING 

as to prevent its being moved upward along the warp-threads, as the 
carpet goes on toward completion. The second, flat, and about three 
inches in width, rests between the front and back threads. The use 
of these rods will be explained further on. 

Preliminary to the weaving, the weavers, or children who are 
learning the rudiments of the art, undo the big skeins in which the 
yarn comes from the dyers, and wind it into balls. These are hung 
in a multicolored row, upon a cross-rod fastened to the warp-beam 
overhead, and the ends hang down within the weaver's reach. In 
the factories in the weaving centres of Persia, spools are used. In re- 
mote districts, when yarn of a certain color is exhausted before the 
piece is done, the nearest shade that can be got is used to complete 
the figure. Sometimes, when no material at all like can be obtained, 
the pattern jumps abruptly into some other color. In large towns, 
where dyers are many, this never occurs, for the master weaver, fore- 
seeing the lack, hastens to the dye-shop and has the supply replen- 
ished. 

The patterns from which the fabrics are copied, among the coun- 
try weavers, are usually old rugs, one or two of which each family, 
whether among the wandering shepherds or the home-staying folk of 
the town, keeps for that praiseworthy purpose. As much store is 
set by these as by the family plate in Western lands, and so familiar 
do these swift-fingered women become with the design by reproduc- 
ing it year after year all through their humdrum lives, that a skilled 
weaver goes deftly along with it, supplying unerringly, as if by un- 
conscious cerebration, the proper color in its proper place, even 
though it be only a single stitch in a tangled mass of utterly differ- 
ent hues. Her fingers seem to know the pattern, and half the time 
her eyes are not upon the work at all. 

For beginners, the old rug is hung within arm's length, with the 
back of it exposed so that every knot and its color may be easily 

85 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

discerned. Thus a design, border and all, is gradually ingrained upon 
the young weaver's memory, never to be forgotten. 

In towns where weaving is conducted on a large scale, when new 
patterns are to be used they are wrought out, sometimes upon great 
cardboards, on which the stitches are indicated by squares, each 
painted in its proper color ; sometimes upon cheap cloth, the design 
of the whole rug being mapped there by sewing threads of the differ- 
ent colors upon the knot spaces. Then the whole is cut up, and dis- 
tributed to the weavers. This is always done in making the silk 
rugs of Kirman and Tabriz. In most of the great rug-weaving 



THE PERSIAN WEAVERS TOOLS 



centres, the European and American firms keep skilled hands, known 
as "scale-makers," whose business it is to weave small sections of any 
new design, and these are given to the workmen and women for 
patterns. In Ghiordes and Demirdji especially this custom is in 
vogue. The weavers there are unable to work from a painted pattern. 
They must have the actual fabric before them. Not so in Oushak. 
There they have pieces of the pattern framed. In many localities the 
number of knots of each color to be tied in by each weaver is called 
or read off by the loom-master. The patterns for borders and corners 
are made upon separate pieces, and as the work upon them is more diffi- 

86 



WEAVING 

cult than that of the centre, the most accomplished weavers sit at the 
ends of the plank before the loom. 

Armed with a little knife and a pair of curved scissors, the weaver 
sits down before the virgin warp and starts the fabric. There is some 
preliminary weaving of warp and weft threads together to form a web 
at the ends. Then the actual work of tying the pile yarn begins. 
Except for the Soumak fabrics and the khilims, which will be spoken 
of hereafter, Oriental carpets are confined to two systems of knotting. 
The first is termed the Turkish or Ghiordes knot, and is in vogue 
throughout Asia Minor, the Caucasus, Kurdistan, and in some 
localities farther East. 




GHIORDES KNOT. 



SEHNA KNOT ; 
RIGHT-HAND SYSTEM. 



SEHNA KNOT ; 
LEFT-HAND SYSTEM. 



The second is the Persian or Sehna knot, which, though better 
calculated to produce a close, fine, even, velvety surface, has in many 
parts of Persia been abandoned for the Ghiordes, which is a trifle 
more easily tied. 

The difference may be understood by a glance at the illustra- 
tions. It is very simple. In the Turkish system the knot-yarn is 
twisted about the warp-thread in such fashion that the two upstand- 
ing ends of the pile alternate with every two threads of the warp. 
The Persian knot, on the contrary, is tied so that from every space 
between the warp threads one end of pile yarn protrudes. 

In the number of knots which can be tied to the square inch the 
advantage lies with the Sehna method. The Ghiordes brings two 

87 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

ends of the knot yarn together, and leaves consequently a wider 
space between the knots than does the Sehna. But each tuft is 
larger by half, and if the pile is not very closely clipped — as it is not 
in most rugs where this knot is used — the spreading of these ends 
gives an equally compact surface. In the Kirman, Tabriz, Sehna, 
old Turkestan and Kabistan rugs, however, it is the custom to trim 
the pile exceedingly close, which brings out more clearly the minute 
color variations of the design. In Tabriz and parts of Kurdistan a 
special system is used. The rugs are woven in the Turkish knot, but 
the arrangement of the warp-threads is such as to secure extraordi- 
nary compactness in the pile. 

The Ghiordes knot took its name from the old city of Ghiordes, 
where years ago the Turkish method had its greatest perfection, but 
nowadays, though the knot is the same and the weavers many, the 
fabrics have changed sadly. The art is not lost in Ghiordes, for at 
discouragingly long intervals there find way to market from that town 
dainty prayer rugs or some bits of sedjadeh, so fine of texture, so true 
in color, so traditionally perfect in design, that experts, knowing well 
how far the Ghiordese have fallen from workmanly grace, swear by 
the beard of the Prophet that they have been made in Sehna, after 
the Ghiordes patterns of long ago. Of all the fabrics of to-day the 
Kabistans of the Caucasus will be found, perhaps, most faithful in ad- 
herence to the old models, and in them are best shown the fine, vel- 
vety effects which may be come at with the Ghiordes knot, when tied 
by masters who have not proven recreant to the tradition of their 
craft. The Ghiordes knot is always one and the same thing. The 
Sehna, being more of a running knot, is sometimes reversed and 
worked from left to right. This is classed by some authorities as an 
entirely different system. In all these knottings two strands of yarn 
are frequently used, thus doubling the thickness of the pile. 

The loosest knotting in distinctly modern Eastern carpets is 



PLATE IX 



Plate IX. Old Kirman R 

I 4? 

Loaned by Mr. Robert L. Stevens 

There is striking resemblance between this and the old South Persian 
Kirman published in the earlier editions. They are alike in size and theme 
and even more alike in treatment. In both the big red roses are drawn in per- 
spective, so that even the curled petals are distinguishable. The border stripes 
are the same in number, width and arrangement ; the design of both rugs from 
first to last is simply the massing of exquisite natural flowers, a custom from 
which the later Kirman weavers have ingloriously departed. The only points 
of real difference, however, are that the ground of the centre in the former rug 
is wool-white ; in the present one, so far as it can be discerned through the 
flowers, it is blue-black, while the white ground is reserved for the border. In 
the field of the other rug there were no flowers other than roses, while in this 
we see the pert, upright stalk of the henna, with its five staring blossoms, set 
alternately in white and blue ; lastly and most significant, in the former fabric, 
the roses were contained in vases, of the antique urn type, with graceful han- 
dles ; here, instead, is the cloud-band with its never failing suggestion of the 
over-mastering Mongol. This weaver was Kasem ; the other was Karim. 
Karim was the poet ; Kasem, the painter. 



WEAVING 

found in Kulah, Oushak, Ghiordes, and the latter-day Feraghan. 
The most closely tied are those made in Saruk, Sehna and Kirman, 
and in some of the better Turkomans, and for the rest, Kabistans, 
Tabriz, and Serapis. 1 The number of knots to the inch is deter- 
mined, of course, by the closeness of the warp-threads and the number 
of weft-threads thrown across after each row of knots. In Sehnas 
and Kirmans, where the warp is of silk, the weft-threads sometimes 
lie so close together that the weaver is compelled to put the stitches in 
with the needle. 

It is the custom of expert weavers not to work straight across 
from one end of the row to the other, changing the yarn as often as 
the pattern calls for a change of color, as tyros do, but to put in all the 
stitches of one color on the row, wherever they are required, before 
taking up another yarn. This saves, in the making of a rug, a total 
of time well worth consideration. Where the pattern is a familiar 
one the weaver can determine at a glance on what warp-threads the 
knots of each color belong, and even in strange patterns a clever 
hand does it almost without error. 

When a knot is completed the weaver cuts the yarn with a knife, 
and it is one of the tests of skill to cut so nearly to the intended 
length of the pile that a minimum of material shall be lost in the 
trimming with scissors, which is performed as soon as the row is com- 
plete. An inventive agent of a Smyrna carpet establishment once 
tried to compel the weavers engaged on the firm's work at Oushak, 
Kulah, and Ghiordes to use a small steel rod, which was fastened 
across the face of the warp, and around which the yarns must be car- 



1 "Various tests for ascertaining the quality of a carpet have been described. One is to drop 
on it a piece of red-hot charcoal; then, if the carpet is a good one, the singed part can be brushed off 
without leaving any trace of^the burn. Chardin says : ' The Persian rule to know good carpets and 
to rate them by, is to lay the thumb on the edge of the carpet, and to tell the threads in a thumb's 
breadth ; for the more there are the dearer the work is. ' " — E. Treacher Collins: ' ' In the Kingdom of 
the Shah." 

89 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

ried continuously in making the knots. On the outer side of this 
rod was a groove running from end to end. When the row of knots 
was finished a knife was run along the groove, cutting the yarn as it 
went. So closely did half the circumference of the rod approximate 
the ultimate length of the pile that the loss of yarn by subsequent 
trimming was reduced to about two per cent. It is ordinarily twenty- 
five per cent, when the cutting is done by guess, for by no amount of 
effort or experiment has a profitable means been devised for utilizing 
the refuse. The weavers rejected the rod angrily, for its use occupied 
time, and that was their loss, whereas the waste'of wool from the old 
manner of cutting came out of the pockets of the firm. 

Trimming the pile is one of the most important and difficult 
parts of the weaver's work ; so difficult, in fact, that Americans, 
working upon imitation " Turkish " or " Persian " carpets in the facto- 
ries of New York are unable to do it at all satisfactorily, and a machine 
has been constructed, on the lawn-mower or planing-mill principle, to 
take the place of the Oriental weaver's scissors. Uneven trimming 
of the pile is a fault found, strange to say, in some Eastern rugs 
which otherwise are of distinguished merit.' 

When a row of tufts has been trimmed to even lengths, the 
threads of weft are thrown across, from one side to the other of the 
warp and back again. It is in this process that the rods before 
mentioned, the flat one between front and back threads, and the round 
one to which the back threads of the warp are fastened, come into 
service. By drawing the round rod out a little, the warp-threads are 
separated, back from front, so that the weft may be passed 



1 Experiment was made in Anatolia with what were known as raised patterns, produced by clip- 
ping the pile of the grounds close, and leaving that of the patterns longer, grading the length so as to 
form a comparatively accurate relief of whatever object the pattern was supposed to represent. A 
number of these singular and unpleasantly overdone fabrics came to this country, but they were so 
plainly at variance with the Eastern theory that they were justly neglected, and further making of them 
was abandoned. 

90 



WEAVING 

across readily, over and under. Then, reversing the direction, and 
separating the threads by turning the flat rod down to the horizontal, 
the weft is carried back again, passing each warp-thread on the oppo- 
site side from that embraced by the preceding shute. Thus the row 
of knots is bound firmly, and the tufts kept upright, securing an even 
pile. In coarse fabrics of the barchanah order the Kazak custom of 
tnrowing four threads of weft across after each row of knots is much 
followed. Time and the effort of tying knots are saved. On the 
other hand, it is the habit among the Sehna and Tabriz weavers 
to carry the weft one way and then put in another row of knots before 
carrying it back. This makes the pile wonderfully compact.' 

The next step is to beat down both knots and weft with a comb 
or "batten." In the Turkish countries this implement is of wood, 
but the Persians prefer it to be of steel. Unskilful use of this comb, 
beating one part of the row harder than another, will often produce 
unevenness in the completed rug, for which, in extreme cases, there 
is no cure except to cut it and sew it together again. Clumsy weaving 
causes the same imperfection. Some of the Mosul Kurdish rugs 
illustrate this. 

When all this knotting, clipping, and inweaving of the weft- 
threads has been repeated to the end of the design, there remains 
only the finishing of sides and ends to be accomplished. This varies 
widely in the different localities, but in any one district very seldom, 
though there are some sections where two or even more styles are in 
equal vogue. In nearly all rugs there is left at the end a thin, hard 



1 The method of preparing these weft-threads is of almost incalculable importance. In many 
tightly woven fabrics made in newly established weaving communities the sides begin to curl after the 
rug has been in use for a time. The cause of this is that the weft-thread, which is carried on a shuttle 
and thus passed back and forth is too tightly twisted in the effort to give it firmness. A simple experi- 
ment, the doubling of a twisted cord, will show what happens. To guard against this curling it is 
the custom of skilled weavers to use two separate threads for the warp and have them twisted in oppo- 
site directions, that the tendency of the one may counteract that of the other, 

91 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

web, sometimes scarcely long enough to be visible, woven of warp 
and weft, usually dyed in some solid color or with a stripe. Some- 
times there is a thick but narrow selvage outside the web, across one 
or both ends. The loose ends of the warp-threads are then made 
into a fringe, short in most rugs but in many of the nomad fabrics 
left long for the effect, which is most striking. The forms which this 
warp fringe takes are many — knots, twists, and even in some cases 
braids, such as form the lariat of the Mexican herdsman. The warp- 
threads, again, may simply be cut loose, and left to make a rough 
finish. In others only one end carries a fringe, the other being 
stoutly finished by a singular doubling back of the warp, and in- 
weaving of it with the weft-threads. A few of the antique prayer 
rugs of Ghiordes have sewed on at the ends a silk fringe of the sort 
used in the finishing of so many European and American curtains. 

The sides of the Eastern carpets are for the most part either 
selvaged or overcast, sometimes with wool, sometimes with cotton, 
and occasionally with camel's-hair or goat's-hair yarn, either dyed or 
in the natural color. The selvage is formed by simply working the 
weft, which is often dyed, around the last few threads of the warp, at 
both sides of the rug. Sometimes, as in the Daghestans and old 
Ghiordes, extra threads, colored, are used to form a fine selvage at 
the sides. In the Ghiordes these are of silk. The principal finish- 
ings are here enumerated in the briefest manner. An account of each, 
where it chances to have any striking characteristic, will be found in 
the chapters descriptive of the different fabrics, and the textile tables 
will show the typical finishings of all the standard rugs of commerce. 

The most impressive touch a weaver ever gives a rug is to sew 
fast upon it, at some central point, when it is partly finished, a single 
blue bead, a clove of garlic or a tiny scrap of print-cloth. All these 
are held to be talismans, and to find any one of them on a rug you 
have purchased is to know that the weaver, in whatever place he 

92 



WEAVING 

wrought, gave personal and particular benediction to his fabric, and 
wished it good treatment during its little journey in the world. Of- 
tentimes, when the bales of rugs are opened in Smyrna and Constan- 
tinople, pieces are found with scraps of paper fastened upon them, on 
which the weaver, or some one on his behalf, has written in the East- 
ern characters a petition " to all to whom these presents may come," 
that they use the rug kindly and pray now and then for the maker of it. 

These eccentricities and superstitions which attend upon rug- 
making are without number. If, while the rug is in process of con- 
struction, a neighbor coming in exclaims at its beauty or promise, he 
is implored, in the name of the Prophet, to spit upon the fabric for 
luck. No instance is known, in the lifetime of the oldest weaver, 
where this observance was withheld. Should the guest go away 
without paying any tribute of praise he is counted to have bewitched 
the carpet, and incense is burned in the room forthwith to avert the 
blight of misfortune which needs must follow. 

A marvel to Americans and Europeans at the great interna- 
tional exhibitions has always been the double-faced carpet, woven 
with a pile on both sides and in altogether dissimilar designs.' Many 
people have been at a loss to understand how this singular effect 
could be produced, and are loath to believe that the piece did not in 
reality consist of two carpets, fastened together back to back after 
their completion. The warp is tied on a frame, which works on pins 
at top and bottom, turning to the weaver first one side and then the 
other. Having finished a row of knots on one side in its design, he 
turns the frame over and works a row on the other, with different col- 
ors and different figures ; then passes his thread of weft across to 
bind them both. It is a simple process, after all, but the effect is 
startling. 



1 How old this trick of weaving is it is impossible to say. Pliny speaks of having seen these 
afi^ifitMua when he was a lad. 

93 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

In all Oriental countries rugs were, until lately, made for specific 
personal purposes, and never put to any other use than that for which 
they were first destined. Although among dealers and purchasers 
alike in this country these classifications are little known, each class 
has its distinguishing name, and from passing through Constantino- 
ple and Smyrna as distributing points they have retained the Turkish 
use-titles, rather than those of the Persian, Tartar, or local dialect. 
These are : 

Namazlik, or prayer rug. — This is the one piece of property 
which every faithful Mohammedan must own, and he clings to it de- 
votedly as long as he lives. Throughout all the Moslem countries 
the namazlik preserves its significant feature, the point or niche at 
one end, representing the niche of the mosque. The colors and 
decorative character of the prayer rug vary in different localities. In 
some districts it is severely rectilinear ; in others, the lines verging 
to the point may be curved. But the one-end configuration can never 
be mistaken for anything else. The namazlik is the Oriental's con- 
stant companion. When the call to prayer comes, he spreads his rug 
upon the ground, with the apex of the niche toward Mecca, and 
prostrates himself in reverence, his head resting in the angle. Thus 
bowed, he prays. 

Prayer rugs do not vary greatly in size. The width is from two 
and a half to four feet, and the length from four and a half to six. The 
prayer rug made for personal use has, as a rule, the name of its owner 
worked in the wool, and is of the very best weaving. 

Hammamlik, or bath rug. — This is usually presented to the bride 
on her wedding day. Her parents are the donors, but there is a 
certain humor in the fact that the rug, in nine cases out of ten, is 
woven by the girl herself. It reveals accurately her skill as a weaver, 
and the limit of her artistic taste, for it represents the thought and 
labor of years. The hammamliks are used to spread upon the floor 

94 



W E A V I N G 

in the baths and their constant contact with soap and water gives 
them a peculiar lustre. Their shape is unique. As a rule they are 
almost square. 

Sedjadeh, or floor covering. — This name is given to carpets of 
medium size, say more than seven and less than ten feet in length. 
The specific name for the larger floor fabrics is halt, in Persian, kali. 

Yestiklik. — These are known in America as Anatolian mats, and 
may be found in profusion in any good stock of Oriental rugs. They 
serve a multitude of purposes in our furnishing, but in the East, the best 
ones are made to cover the divan pillows. They are ornate, and gay 
in hue, since the pillow, with the Oriental as with us, is ornamental as 
well as useful. The Anatolian mats are more fully described in the 
chapter on Turkish fabrics. 

Makatlik, or "runners." — These are what we know as "hall "or 
"stair" rugs. In the East they do duty as covers for the low felt 
divans along the sides of the room. They range from two and a half 
to four feet in width and from ten to twenty feet in length. 

Hehbehlik, saddle-bag or saddle-cover. — Wherever there is a rug- 
making district there are saddle-bags peculiar to it. All the East 
rides, and the hehbehlik lends all sorts of splendor to caparison. It 
reflects, as indeed all rugs do, the general character of the people. 
Among the nomads it is rough in texture and astounding in color. 
The more polished races observe better artistic tenets in design, but 
the hehbehlik is always made substantially and with more freedom in 
the matter of brilliancy than any of the floor coverings except the 
odjaklik. In America these saddle cloths are used for pillow covers. 

Odj'aklik, hearth or fire rug. — This is the most precious of all 
Eastern family treasures. It is always spread before the fireplace on 
the arrival of a guest. It is wonderful in color and most elaborate 
in workmanship, and may be recognized by the pointed formation of 
the central field at both ends. 

95 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

Turbehlik, or grave carpets. — The custom of spreading rugs, as 
the Occidental strews flowers, on the graves of relatives or friends, 
seems to have prevailed more generally in Persia and regions imme- 
diately adjoining it than in other parts of the Orient, though it is 
practised to some degree among almost every Eastern people. The 
turbehlik — from lurbch, a grave — is the combined handiwork of all the 
members of the household. Even the children tie knots in it, that it 
may be expressive of the sorrow of all. It was through the priests 
that the grave-carpets first came to be dispensed to the West. Now 
they are made for export, like other fabrics. The designs — cypress, 
willow, and myrtle — are eloquent of the turbehlik' s character. The 
whole appearance of it is funereal, but there are flowers and other 
bright bits of color, which speak of a blissful hereafter for the dead 
whose bones it was meant to cover. This floral element, indicative 
of hope, is so essential that even the geometrical Daghestans relax 
their rule and use tree and flower forms. In Persia there is no limit 
to the decoration employed in these rugs. Trees themselves embody 
the idea of perpetual life. 

Berdelik, or hangings. — These are the fabrics made, not for floor 
covering, but wholly for the adornment of wall space, or for por- 
tieres and curtains. The shape, and sometimes the finishing, will 
suggest a particular intent, but all rugs which are of extreme fineness 
and lightness, especially those in delicate colors, may be counted as 
belonging to this class. The Oriental seems to have been endowed 
with an intuitive notion of the law of gravity in decoration. He never 
makes the error of placing on the floor a fabric intended for the walls. 
The top-heavy, upside-down effect, so apparent in many American 
rooms, is thus avoided. 

In general, it may be said that the silk fabrics are to be classed 
as berdeliks. There are persons of lavish leanings, to be sure, who 
employ them on floors, but it is not a custom, least of all in the East, 

9 6 



PLATE X 



Platk X. Saruk Rug 

4' 1 

Loaned by Mr. /■'. />'. Proctor 

This is one of the best of such Saruk products as reach this country. In 
design it differs widely from the generality of the output. The row effect, 
which is common in middle Persia, is here, but the usual Feraghan devices arc- 
not used. The workmanship is very thorough, and in fineness and accuracy, 
particularly of the border, compares favorably with the weaving of the olden 
times, but the effect is lost, in a measure, by reason of the dark colors which are 
Saruk characteristics. Lost, for the same reason, is the fine shading of the 
colors in the border flowers. These resemble the Kirman work, while the 
floral elements of the centre are laid in solid colors, such as are in vogue farther 
to the north. The feature of the carpet, outside its general excellence as a 
fabric, is the delicate vine tracery of the centre, which is in a vernal shade of 
green and forms a perfect coordinate diaper design. The vines, however, do 
not follow the natural curve, found in the old South Persian carpets, but are 
more in the broken fashion of Herez. 

A mark of modernity is the excision of several inches of border design at 
the top of the rug, probably because the warp proved shorter than that of the 
older fabric from which this was copied. The cut is even made through the 
very middle of a flower, to allow for the insertion of the corner device so that 
the ends may seem to be alike. 



WEAVING 

where there are only stockinged feet to press them. They are, further- 
more, only fine editions of the woolen fabrics of the same localities. 
The silk is capable of far more minute color effects, and more perfect 
shadings, and has a natural lustre which no known treatment can 
impart to wool.' 

But they are not essentially floor coverings. Silk rugs, therefore, 
are not considered in this volume. 



1 "Silk produced at Resht is brought here [Kashan] to be spun and dyed. Then it is sent to 
Sultanabad to be woven into carpets, and is brought back again to have the pile cut by the sharp 
instruments used for cutting the velvet pile, and the finished carpets are sent to Teheran for sale. 
They are made only in small sizes, and are more suitable for portieres than for laying on the floor. 
The coloring is exquisite, and the metallic sheen and lustre are unique. Silk carpets are costly luxur- 
ies. The price of even a fairly good one of small size is £50, the silk alone costing .£20." — Mrs. 
Bishop : "Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan." 

97 



VIII 

CLASS I FICATI ON 

IN the chapters which follow an attempt is made so to set forth 
in description the principal types of Oriental rugs that a clear 
and comprehensive idea may be formed, in the mind of the 
reader, of the general quality, appearance, color, design, texture and 
usefulness of each. 

Attention is called to substitutions which are continually prac- 
tised by vendors — substitutions made possible only by the general 
lack of knowledge, among purchasers, of the points in which one rug 
differs from another. Many names, sufficiently legitimate in their 
way, but which are not included in the recognized nomenclature of 
the trade, are attached by dealers, of their own fancy, to particular 
grades of rugs. I have taken, as stated in the opening chapter, the 
names in use among rug men in Smyrna and Constantinople. No 
American buyer who has ever run the gauntlet of the Levantine 
traders in these great markets has come away accusing them of stu- 
pidity, and their fertility in new and fetching Oriental titles for what 
are in all essentials established varieties of rugs, and thoroughly 
localized, has long ago been proven. It is believed, however, that the 
classifications here made include all the standard fabrics. 

I have found upon inquiry in the rug centres of Asia that in some 

9 8 



CLASSIFICATION 

cases names given in Constantinople as indicating the town or pro- 
vince where the fabrics bearing them were made are erroneous, and 
have come into use merely through the fact that the rugs were taken 
to these towns for market. Persian dealers, receiving orders from 
Constantinople, are often at a loss to know what is wanted, as the 
names given do not comport with those in use where the rugs are 
made and marketed. To substitute here in the headings the names 
by which the fabrics are known at home would cause endless con- 
fusion. Therefore the trade titles are used, correction, where it is of 
importance, being made in the body of the text. 

The running descriptions bear more especially on design and col- 
oring, and the extreme difficulty of making these in anywise clear, in 
so small an allowance of space, must be apparent, since the conditions 
leading to infinite variation in both have already been touched upon. 
The whole aim has been to arrive, by inductive process and exclusion, 
at the true type in each class, group and variety. 

Details of the texture — the knot employed, the material of 
warp, weft and pile, the length of the pile, the number of knots to 
the inch, measuring horizontally for the warp and perpendicularly 
for the weft, and whatever special peculiarities may belong to each 
variety — are set down in their respective columns in the tables which 
will be found at the end of the book. Where the texture of a cer- 
tain weave is at variance with the tables I make bold to believe that 
it is because the fabric is not true to its type, but is either degen- 
erate or capricious. In many points the tables are amplified by the 
descriptive matter. It is necessary, in order to give a clear idea of 
the classification, to present here a skeleton table comprising all the 
classes. L .ofC. 



99 



ORIENTAL RUGS 



Daghestan- 



Transcaucasian- 



CAUCASIAN 
i. Daghestan Proper. 

2. Derbend. 

3. " Kabistan " or Kuba. 

4. " Tzitzi " or Tchetchen. 

5. Tcherkess or Circassian 
1. Mosul Proper, 

MOSUL- 



Karabagh. 
Soumak or ' 
Shirvan. 
Kazak. 



2. Turkman or Genghis. 

3. Western Kurds. 



Kashmir.' 



TURKISH 



KCNIEH- 



AZERBIJAN— 



i. Konieh Proper. 

2. Kir-Shehr. 

3. Kaba-Karaman. 

4. Yuruks. 

5. Anatolians. 



i. Tabriz. 



Smvrna- 



1. Ghiordes. 

2. Kulah. 

3. Demirdjik. 

4. Oushak. 

5. Bergamo and Ladik. 

6. Ak-Hissar. 

7. Meles or Carian. 



PERSIAN 



2. Herez- 



(a) Bakhshis. 
(6) Herez Proper. 

(c) Gorevan. 

(d) "Serapi" or Sirab. 
Kara-Dagh. 

I I. Feraghan Proper. 

2. Sultanabad. 
I 3. "Saraband" or Sarawan. 

(a) Kara-Geuz 



Eastern 
Kurdistan- 



Sehna. 

Kurdistan Proper. 
Kermansbah. 
"Sarakhs" or Bijar 
Koultuk. 
Souj-Bulak. 



Feraghans— 



4. Hamadan- 



{b) Oustri-nan. 

(c) Burujird. 

(</) Bibikabad. 
Teheran-Ispahan-Saruk. 
" Jooshaghan" or Djushaghan. 



KlRMANIEH- 



1. Kirman Proper. 

2. Shiraz. 

3. Niris. 



KlRMANIEH- 



4. Mecca. 

5. Khorassan. 

6. Meshhed. 

7. Herat. 



TURKOMAN 

1. "Bokhara" or Tekke. 4. Beluchistan. 



2. Yomud. 

3. "Afghan" or Bokhara. 



5. Samarkand. 

6. Yarkand and Kashgar. 



CLASSIFICATION 

There are manufacturing towns, such as Ghiordes and Oushak, 
in which several grades of rugs are made, and each grade receives its 
special name as a guide to a knowledge of its quality. These classifi- 
cations have not been set down in the summary table, but in the 
textile tables details of the texture of the most important of these 
fabrics are given, and in the account of the products of each town or 
district other differences between the grades are indicated. 

In several places, as a result of Western enterprise, and for that 
matter, of native ambition, large rug-making interests have been 
established recently, where some old and well-known varieties of 
fabrics are used as patterns. To these products no place has been 
given in the tables, but they have been mentioned in connection with 
the originals from which they have been copied. Many of them 
are of signal merit, and it is not on account of inferiority that they 
are excluded from the tables, but solely because they are only indus- 
trious reproductions, and analysis of them would be superfluous. 

No tabular classification of the Indian rugs is given, nor is any 
attempt made to set forth the details of their construction in the 
textile tables, for the reason that, as now woven, they are not the 
original products, but are made in grades arranged merely upon 
a trade basis. The details, therefore, are much alike in all. The 
chapter on Indian carpets contains sufficient indication of the nature 
and comparative merits of the staple output. 



IX 

CAUCASIAN 

THE region lying on both sides of the Caucasus Mountains 
and bounded on the west by the Black Sea and the Turkish 
frontier, on the south by Persia and on the east by the 
Caspian, has been an undisputed Russian possession for almost a cen- 
tury. Prior to that parts of it had changed hands from time to time 
between the Turks and Persians, and in the early stages of rug im- 
portation to America its fabrics were known as Turkish textiles. 
They were more widely used than those of Persia or the Anatolian 
Peninsula, and are still often referred to, in a general way, as Turkish 
rugs. This is due partly to the tenacity of custom and partly to the 
unwillingness of the dealers to sacrifice any whit of the fascination 
which clings to a purely Oriental name. "Caucasian rugs" unques- 
tionably sounds cold, bleak and Russian. There is in it no sugges- 
tion of the warm, languorous Eastern life of which the word Turkish 
is so eloquent, though these Caucasian fabrics have in them perhaps 
more of pure Oriental decoration than many which rejoice in more 
luxurious titles. 

But there is about the fabrics from this section so much that is 
distinctive, and their kinship is so plainly traceable, that they merit a 
more modern and more accurate classification. They are essentially. 



CAUCASIAN 

as well as geographically, Caucasian rugs, and have a character of 
their own, wholly different from that of most of the fabrics now made 
in Turkey proper. 

The Caucasian marks have, too, been so communicated to the 
rugs of the district lying to the west, in old Armenia and Mesopota- 
mia, that I have felt compelled to class the so-called Mosul products 
as of the Caucasian order, despite the fact that the Mosul territory 
is on the Turkish side of the boundary, and, further, that in design 
many of the Mosul rugs present Persian elements in a coarse form. 

The general groups comprised in the Caucasian class are, there- 
fore, the Daghestan, Transcaucasian and Mosul fabrics. 

DAGHESTAN FABRICS 

For thorough workmanship, harmony of color, and adherence 
to traditional design, some of the floor coverings grouped under the 
general head of Daghestan are unexcelled. The district from which 
they are named is a three-cornered bit of country east of the Cauca- 
sus, wedged into the angle which the mountains make with the Cas- 
pian Sea. The many tribes which once maintained their autonomies, 
small and great, within the confines of the region had different lan- 
guages, or in any case different dialects, and some of them, it is re- 
corded, had no written forms. The vigorous Russification to which 
they have been subjected since the conquest — conquest against which 
they warred long and sturdily — has given them a common language 
and a spur to industry. It has shown them the road to market, but, 
save in that increased production has been attended by something of 
the universal decline in quality, it has not changed in any important 
particular the character of the weavings. 

The Daghestan rugs have, in fact, shown closer adherence to old 
standards than those of almost any Eastern provinces. In their work 

103 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

these Daghestan weavers are patient and painstaking. Among the 
mountaineers, sometimes, the leisure of two or three years is spent in 
the making of a single rug. The region is one of the few which have 
not changed the whole character of their industry, under the induce- 
ments which recent years have offered. As in Persia, towns and dis- 
tricts which are only a little way apart follow altogether different 
models in their rug-making, and show no inclination to depart from 
their respective customs, although communication is much easier now 
than it was before the Russian occupation. 

Daghestan Proper. — The proper Daghestan rugs can be singled 
out from all the fabrics of the East, almost unerringly, if one fact be 
borne in mind — that they are made in imitation of jewels, or, some main- 
tain, of mosaics. They show it at a glance. They have all the bril- 
liancy, accuracy, and clean cutting that either idea suggests. Their 
whole effect is one of geometrical cleanness and clear atmosphere. 
They are illustrative, to the last degree, of the pure ornamental forms 
of the Mohammedan East. The geometrical finds its best expres- 
sion in them. Only occasionally, to adorn the border stripes or to 
break up some annoying expanse of ground color, is the floral form 
resorted to, and then it is severely conventional. The colors, too, are 
positive ; the transitions and contrasts are pronounced. There is no 
shading off from one hue to another. All this would result in harsh- 
ness were it not for the masterly adjustment of color values and areas. 
The completeness and perfect balance of the Daghestan are its charm. 

While the designs vary much in detail, the class character is 
plain in them all. Beyond the geometrical nature of their figures, it 
may be said that their common feature is the universal use they make 
of the angular hook, which may be called a " latch-hook," and which 
seems to be an outgrowth of the Chinese fret. In different forms it 
appears in all the Daghestan fabrics, and in some of the Asia Minor 
and Turkoman rugs as well, but in the Daghestan proper its develop- 

104 



PLATE XI 







) '.Til 1), 



Plate XI. Ispahan Carpet. Sixteentfi Century 

From the Marquand Collection 

A beautiful survival of the great epocli in Persian history — the peri' 
the Sufi reigns, when art ami poetry wore paramount in the popular life. Tin- 
carpet lias much of the fine quality of the Ardebil < Plate XXII t. 

The lotus forms and cloud band, which were introduced into Persian 
design from the East, are here, ami they are in the Ardebil carpet, but not in 
the Titanic size or bold color which they bore fifty years afterwards, and which 
they still retain in the big carpets of modern Persia. There is also discernible 
in the border, in minute form, the lancet leaf, and, as dominant factors, tin- 
bold rosette and palmette, in alternation, all of which were combined to make 
the- regulation Herati design of later tinier. 

"That the weavers of the capital — for it seems past question that the car- 
pets of this class were made on the palace looms of Ispahan— still worked with 
a masterly comprehension of ultimate general effect, is further proven by the 
emphases in the field of this rug. These are effected in the simplest manner, 
by projecting a very few of the leaf and flower forms in the centre and at the 
ends of the field in stronger and darker color. In the centre a perfect medal- 
lion effect is thus secured without the use of any cumbrous outline figure, and 
at the ends, by the aid of the palmette shape and the leaf, the accent is carried 
into the corners and a clever harmony established between the field and the 
deep green and more pronounced pattern of the border." 



CAUCASIAN 

merit is probably more complete than in any other rugs, with the 
possible exception of some Yomuds and the Shirvans and Soumaks, 
which so far as design is concerned are of the same general family. 
In the Daghestans this hook is used for every purpose. It is attached 
to almost everj' figure by way of finish ; it serrates the borders of 
large geometrical shapes, and softens the contrast between two ad- 
joining fields of color without making its hard self apparent. It is a 
well chosen agent to produce the delicate, harmonious effect which main- 
tains in the Daghestans despite their subservience to the straight line. 

A characteristic design in Daghestans presents, upon a field of 
rather light blue, a central oblong, set transversely, and flanked, at either 
end of the rug, by elongated octagons of old ivory, bound about with 
bands of red, which extend from the oblontr. These three main fig-, 
ures are divided and sub-divided according to the Daghestan method, 
into multicolored geometrical shapes, the edges of all of which are 
trimmed with the inevitable latch-hook. Finally, the innermost fig- 
ure is a diamond, filled with a lattice-work of tiny crosses, of alternate 
red and blue upon a field of wool white. The corners of the central 
field, left by the two great octagons, are taken up by triangles and stripe 
effects, with the hook again softening; all. 

Many colors serve to diversify the inner figures of the design, 
but they are all carefully subordinated to the tonic color. The bor- 
der is made up of three main stripes, separated and bounded by a 
liberal number of narrower stripes in solid colors, many of them with- 
out pattern. The effect of this is to emphasize the geometrical 
suggestion, and yet remove the heavy, hard effect of three large 
stripes, one beside the other, unbroken save by the rectilinear patterns 
which they carry. The ground of the middle or main stripe, in the 
example now in mind — which, it is almost needless to say, is not the 
one used in the illustration — is of ivory, and that of the supporting 
stripes the deepest and richest of old green, of a value to balance the 

105 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

red of the central oblong. Upon the green is a running Greek pat- 
tern, and the main border carries in repetition, in alternate red and 
green, a variation of the swastika. Here it is laid in angle-wise, and 
is further ornamented by the addition of the latch-hook. A narrow 
band of light red frames the whole. Oftentimes the central ground 
has, in lieu of large geometrical figures, a lattice-work of diamond 
shapes made up of latch-hooks. Within every lozenge is a small 
geometrical figure, divided into harmonious colors, and with its edges 
further adorned with the hooks in very diminutive size. This latticed 
central ground is especially common in the prayer rugs. In prayer 
rugs of other districts — Ghiordes, for example — the field is more apt 
to be of plain color, unbroken save by the religious emblems at the 
top, bottom, and sides. 

The Daghestans were probably the first of the Oriental fabrics 
to become popular in America. A large proportion of the rugs in 
use in American houses to-day, which were purchased more than 
twenty-five years ago, are of this variety. At that time they sold for 
a song, and fifteen dollars would buy a Daghestan prayer rug which 
cannot now be had for five times that sum. Their value is vastly 
enhanced by the stubbornness of the native in this part of the Cau- 
casus. He refuses to lend himself to the making of the enormous 
carpets for which there is now such demand, and sticks to the small 
rug sizes which his forbears made for their own use. Nor will he, as a 
rule, consent that the character of his work shall be debauched. The 
result is that he cannot keep pace with the demand — a demand created 
solely by the ancient purity and honesty of his fabrics. Hence, 
the number of genuine specimens of this variety now imported is by 
no means in proportion to that of other rugs, and the price for the 
real article is commensurately high. In a lot of three or four hundred 
Caucasian rugs of small sizes it is not usual to find more than half a 
dozen thoroughly good Daghestans. Other Caucasian fabrics, resem- 

106 



CAUCASIAN 

bling them in color and design, but in no wise their equals in any 
respect, are sold masquerading under the Daghestan name. 

Genuine Daghestans are made, warp, weft and pile, of the best 
wool, and are tied with the Ghiordes knot. They have usually from 
sixteen to twenty-four threads of warp to the inch — from sixty-four to 
one hundred and forty-four knots to the square inch — which makes it 
possible to work out quite minute patterns. The warp is most often 
of gray wool; the ends are finished in a narrow woven selvage, outside 
of which the warp is thrown into a knotted fringe. The sides have 
a fine selvage, usually colored and made of extra threads. 

Derbetid. — The general features of the Daghestan are repeated, 
in much coarser form, in the handiwork of the Tartar and Turkoman 
inhabitants of the walled city of Derbend and the outlying country 
up and down the Caspian. This prosperous town on the sea coast is 
the capital of the province. It was also capital of old Albania, and 
in 1722 was taken by Peter the Great. The regulation rug of the 
Derbend variety is merely a copy of the Daghestan, but upon a heav- 
ier scale. It is of greater size, the pile is longer, the figures not so 
finely wrought, the colors fewer, cruder and bolder. It partakes of 
the character of the Kazak. Blue, white, red and yellow predomi- 
nate, but the fine harmony of the Daghestan is missing. The surface 
has a noticeable lustre like that found in many rugs of Mosul. 

The Turkoman influence has substituted in some of the Der- 
bend rugs a goat's-hair warp for the fine wool of the Daghestans ; the 
fringe is, therefore, darker in hue and wilder in appearance than that 
of the more finished product. Usually there are four rows of knots 
in the solid selvage at the ends, from which the fringe grows out, but 
not infrequently the warp and the dyed weft are woven together in a 
broad web after the fashion which the Turkomans learned in their 
wild home on the plateaus of Central Asia. 

The Derbends are essentially floor rugs, and are made thicker 

107 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

and in larger sizes for the purpose. From an artistic standpoint they 
are mediocre ; they are poor Daghestan and not particularly good 
nomad. They usually have for main design a large star or some 
other geometrical figure repeated three or four times transversely on 
a field of blue or red. The figures alternate in color, red and saffron 
yellow predominating if the field be blue, blue and yellow if it be red. 
Each is divided into other geometrical figures, in all of which the 
latch-hook plays an important part. The separate Kazak figures are 
sometimes seen. The border stripes, as in all the Caucasians, are 
clearly defined and their patterns pronounced. 

Kabistan. — An error in a single letter — whose error or when com- 
mitted it is impossible to tell — has obscured for years the origin of 
these admirable rugs. Kubistan would have told the story to any 
one who cared enough about it to study the Caucasus. The name 
Kabistan has become a fixture in the rug trade, and is here permitted 
to remain only on the ground before defined, because a substitute 
of the right name for the wrong would be confusing to many. In the 
towns of the Caucasus, the title Kabistan is unknown, save to dealers, 
who through executing orders for purchasers are constantly in com- 
munication with Constantinople merchants. A gentleman at whose 
house I visited in Batoum showed me his collection of rugs, many of 
them gathered twelve or fifteen years ago, when the rug-making had 
not become a commercial affair. Among them was a fine specimen 
of what we know as Kabistan. When I praised it by that name he 
said, " No. That's one of your American inventions. Those rugs 
come from Kuba, down in the southeastern part of Daghestan. They 
are considered about the best fabrics made in the Caucasus." 

I was told later in the bazaars of Tiflis, also, that the rugs were 
made in the Kuba district, of which the town of Kuba is the capital. 
It lies on the slopes of the Baba Dagh, and almost directly over the 
Caucasus range northward from Shirvan. 

108 



CAUCASIAN 

In point of workmanship the Kabistans equal the Daghestan 
proper. In texture, indeed, they are finer ; in design, more diversified. 
In some very fine pieces the elaboration and coloring are really Persian. 
For hard wear under foot they are not as desirable as the Derbend. 
They have a wholesome plentitude of color, in the same general tone 
as the Daghestan, but lack in some measure the glow and brilliancy. 
This results from the sparing use of white to produce areas of high 
light, and of reds. They follow more commonly the Persian tendency 
to the use of dark blues in the ground, which imparts to them a sober 
richness. The patterns in many of these are identical with those of 
the Daghestans, though they have on the other hand many designs 
borrowed from other sources. The elongated star as a dominant 
figure is frequent. It is customary to find this repeated thrice, trans- 
versely of the field, in the scdjadch, and a diamond shape of smaller 
size at each end ; sometimes there are even smaller diamonds linking 
the main figures together. Again, and it is a standard substitute for 
this pattern, three large diamond figures are found, with the field 
space which they do not cover filled in with the ubiquitous pear pat- 
tern, diversely figured and adorned. The Kuba weavers seem to have 
caught a penchant for the use of this device from the Persians, once 
their masters and within easy reach of whom they dwell." They use 
it in many ways ; a not uncommon arrangement is to fill the entire field 
with it, repeated in transverse rows. Above and underneath each row 
runs a regular, serrate line, or rather pattern, across the body of the 
rug, the upward angles pointing between the pears, and the pears of 
the next lower row taking their places beneath the same angles. This, 
it will be seen, throws the pears into diagonal rows. The effect is 
suggestive of the pear designs in many of the fabrics of Persia, where 
it belongs, especially in the Saraband and Shiraz, and the alternate 
arrangement of the same pattern in the rugs of Khorassan. 

1 Even to this day a colony of fire-worshippers exists in Baku. 

109 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

The stripe, for a central device as well as a border element, is 
popular among the makers of the Kabistans. In some cases it is 
clearly defined, and not merely an effect produced by the arrange- 
ment of the patterns. Sometimes the whole field of a rug is divided 
into perpendicular stripes of different colors. In such cases extraor- 
dinary taste and skill are displayed in maintaining harmonious tone 
in the entire fabric. Where, for example, the prevailing tint is a 
pale fawn, intensified in places to a decided brown, only two or three 
of all the stripes are put in red or blue for the sake of accent. Each 
is shaded so skilfully that sometimes the color seems almost to have 
vanished ; then it returns to a deep value. It suggests a dyer's sam- 
ples. There are sudden breakings off from pale brown into some 
equitable value of dull red or old rose, from which the stripe is gradu- 
ally worked back to its original hue, by the most delicate shading, a 
trick rarely if ever employed in pure Daghestans. Each stripe car- 
ries some small decorative pattern throughout its entire length. The 
pear, wherever used, is more or less rectilinear, and broken in the 
manner peculiar to Caucasian figures. The borders in many cases 
have rude bird and animal shapes similar to those found in nomad 
rugs ; and these will sometimes be found adorning the geometrical 
medallions thrown in upon the body of the carpet. One essentially 
Caucasian feature, although it is found in the Yomud weavings, on 
the other side of the Caspian, and in the rugs of Turkoman nomads of 
Laristan and Farsistan, in Persia, is the "barber pole" stripe occurring 
in the borders. The component diagonal stripes forming it are red and 
white, or blue and white, alternately, and frequently carry tiny pat- 
terns of their own. In the border stripes the Kabistans are notably 
rich, following generally the rectilinear Daghestan patterns. 

The skill of the weavers of these rugs is conclusively shown in 
the close and even clipping of the pile. Only the Tekkes and Sehnas 
excel the Kabistans in this respect ; certainly no variety of Caucasian 



CAUCASIAN 

or Turkish fabrics does, unless it be some of the particularly fine Ghi- 
ordes or Kulah antiques. This close trimming makes them flexible, 
and impairs in a measure their durability as floor coverings ; but it 
serves to bring out with fine clearness the minutest details of the de- 
sign, and adds to their beauty when employed as covers for divans or 
tables. 

The similarity of many Kabistan rugs to the Daghestans in 
quality, design and color enables dealers to sell one for the other, but 
they may almost always be distinguished by the fact that Kabistans 
are overcast at the side, or if selvaged the selvage is made with the 
cotton weft, while the Daghestan selvage is of fine, extra, colored 
wool yarn ; and further, that while in the Kabistans the weft and 
sometimes the warp is of cotton cord, like most of the Persian rugs, 
the Daghestan has for both warp and weft the best of wool. Herein, 
too, lies one element of the narrow margin of superiority of the 
Daghestan over its neighbor, in point of durability. Genuine rugs 
of either variety will wear away down to the warp and still retain 
their harmony of color, enhanced rather than diminished by age and 
service. 

Very recently the Kuba weavers have taken to putting a 
"body finish" on the sides of their rugs. The pile is carried out to 
the last thread of the warp save one, and the weft, passing around 
this, makes a cording. The ends have the narrow cloth webbing- and 
the warp-threads are left loose to form a fringe. 

" Tzitzi" or Tchctchcn. — "Tzitzi," or "Chichi," the name given 
in the trade to the textiles of certain tribes and some colonies of 
sedentary artisans, is a corruption of Tchetchen, the tribe whose chief 
habitat is in the mountains north of Daghestan. The nomad ten- 
dency to individual conceit in design is apparent in many " Tzitzis." 
Moving from place to place, too, these rovers who make them pick up 
suggestions from this or that wandering company of shepherds with 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

whom they come in contact. These patterns, therefore, vary indef- 
initely, and this very condition is made a cloak to enable unscrupulous 
dealers to sell as " Tzitzi " the products of other districts. Genuine 
" Tzitzi," of which the older examples are as good rugs as need be, 
will be found to conform in certain points to the Caucasian notions 
of ornamentation, although strangely enough a marked Persian ten- 
dency is to be noticed. The ground is frequently filled with small 
patterns — rosettes, scrolls, compact geometrical tree patterns, pears, 
and so forth — arranged in a manner similar to that of Kabistans and 
some Kurdistans. For want of other name this may be called a grill 
pattern. Usually the transverse line separating the rows in the 
" Tzitzi " is straight instead of serrate, as it is in the Kabistans. 

Other pieces have two or more main figures, crosses, oblongs, 
stars or something of the sort, composing the central design, as in the 
Daghestans, and the rem?inder of the ground filled in with varied 
figures, disconnected and usually of the conventionalized flower 
order. There is a generous allowance of border stripes, three and 
sometimes four, their patterns alternating between geometrical and 
floral devices. The reciprocal trefoil, to which reference is made in 
connection with the rugs of Karabagh, is extremely frequent here. 
The general tone of the " Tzitzis " is dark and seemly. Blue predomi- 
nates as a ground color. Some few specimens are in a higher key by 
reason of having pronounced border designs in bright yellow. 

To acquire a correct idea of the tribes who make the " Tzitzi " 
rugs discrimination must be made between nomads and nomads. 
These of the Caucasus of the present day must not be confused with 
the lawless Bedouins of Mesopotamia, the turbulent vagrants who 
infest Kirman, or the restless Tartars who live by foray throughout 
Turkestan. 

The Tchetchen nomads inhabiting these northern hills move with 
their flocks in quest of food and water, and the sphere of their wan- 



f. 






CAUCASIAN 

derings is seldom more than a hundred square miles. Winter finds 
them in the lowlands ; spring sees them starting with their sheep for 
the hills again. The plateau where a flock is pastured is the tem- 
porary domain of the tribe. The individual holds no land. 

There have been wild wars between these shepherd tribes in the 
past, but the Russian government is scattering so thoroughly the 
seeds of civilization that it is doubtful if at the end of the next decade 
aught will remain here of the strange tribal life which has prevailed 
since the dawn of history. 

Tcherkess or Circassian. — The Tcherkess rugs are few in 
American and European markets now, and good reason is found in 
the fact that the Tcherkess people, as a people, is routed, dissolved, 
destroyed. This sturdy, comely, and unprincipled race, whose women 
filled the seraglios and whose men the guards of the Turkish Sultans, 
and whose long, fierce struggle against Russian supremacy amazed 
Europe, is to-day as a race extinct. Finding it impossible to with- 
stand the Muscovite, almost the whole people — half a million of them 
at least — went out in one great, wretched exodus from their native 
land, vanquished, heart-broken, desperate, but bound not to serve the 
infidels. The two hundred miles of country which they had occupied, 
stretching along the Caucasus and to the shores of the Black Sea, is 
to-day unpeopled, save for a tribe or two of mixed Circassian blood, 
and a handful of Russians or German immigrants huddled here and 
there. When in 1864-5-6 these exiles came strolling through Ana- 
tolia they were beggared, bereft of everything in the way of earthly 
goods and lived in predatory fashion, stealing where chance offered. 
They housed themselves, as do the meanest of our immigrant labor- 
ers, in huts they made of sods and clay. With part of their scant 
gains they bought cheap yarns and wove rugs for coverings. Little 
Turkish children watched with wonder the weavings of these strang- 
ers, so different from any fabrics ever seen in that part of the country 

"3 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

before, and the Turkish mothers worried for fear the visitors should 
steal the toddlers, as was reported, and truthfully, to be the custom of 
their home-land. 

In the carpets which the vagrants made there was small and rude 
pretence at design. Sometimes, since dyeing involved cost, they 
wove simply of white woollen or cotton yarn, with no sign of color 
and no pattern at all. Even in the most pretentious of their fabrics 
white areas were frequent, and the few tints used were of the most 
elementary kind. Rugs of the same sort filter into the Constanti- 
nople markets nowadays, and in bales of other weavings come, one or 
two at a time, to this country. We might know from these creations, 
even if history were silent on the subject, that the Circassian specialty 
was belligerence rather than decorative art, but in the devices them- 
selves there is evident effort to copy, or possibly to reproduce from 
memory, both Caucasian and North Persian elements. Everything 
is positive and abrupt, an effect which is heightened by the lavish use 
of white. 

A prayer rug of this type, which may be taken as representative, 
has the central field divided transversely into two parts by an attenu- 
ate form of the Mongolian cloud-band, which also, from its peculiar 
shape, forms the arch. Above this ground the line is black. In it, 
arranged in diagonal rows, are small diamond shapes. Their edges 
are heavily indented, which gives them a cruciform effect, and in the 
centre of each is a small figure of like shape, but another color. Pre- 
cisely the same device is found covering the central field of Kazak 
odjakliks and elsewhere in the Caucasian and Kurdish fabrics. The 
colors used for it in the Tcherkess rugs are many, but all rudimentary. 
Whether or no these small devices are here intended for stars, shining 
upon the blackness of night, it is difficult to say. They give that 
suggestion. A like idea, but more artistically wrought out, is to be 
found now and then in Asia Minor prayer rugs. 

114 



CAUCASIAN 

At the very top of the field, and on either side of the ends of the 
spandrel, are heavy trees of the cypress shape, but with jagged out- 
lines. The two lower ones are in dull red and the upper one in green. 
All are heavily defined in white. The middle of the foliage area is 
variegated by the small, parti-colored patterns. In the field, under- 
neath, the tree principle, which in some form is found in almost all 
prayer rugs, is presented in the same fashion as those above. The 
centre tree is blue, outlined in white, and the ground-color of the 
field is dull red. The foliage of the tree is set off into perpendicu- 
lar stripes, in which are repeated the small figures found above. 
Beside this, one on either side, are two smaller trees of a yellow shade, 
and above them two small shapes woven in red, like ladders of three 
rounds. The border has a heavy, flowerless, yellow vine on a ground 
of blue. The ends carry a well-made knot-fringe, and the sides an 
added selvage of cotton. The rug throughout is of wool and is 
excellent in point of quality. The impression it conveys is that of large 
feeling and inspiration, and of infinite care ; but the breadth of the 
conception is neutralized by dearth of executive skill. The lack of 
manual facility and of schooling in the weaver's finer art is manifest. 
There is no touch of even semi-professional dexterity about it. It is 
the home-made product. 

An odjaklik of the same sort, offered for sale as " Malgaran," 
had great triangles of black, blue, red, yellow and green upon its cen- 
tral field of time-stained white, so arranged as to effect the " double- 
end " formation. Both these and the space remaining in the field 
were strewn with minute patterns like those in the prayer rug, rudely 
woven in many colors. The inner border was a simple key pattern ; 
the outer, or main stripe, the vine. 

Among certain dealers in rugs in America the term " Malgaran " 
has also been used to indicate these rugs, as well as certain of 
the Samarkand carpets and other Central Asia products allied to 

"5 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

them. The reason for this is plain. The Malakan or Malgaran peo- 
ple, another element in what Leroy-Beaulieu calls "The Babel of the 
Caucasus," have always been and are to-day the carriers of the region. 
In the early days of rug exportation from the Caucasus, when the 
railroad ran only as far as Tiflis, the Malakans brought the rugs there 
in their four-wheeled fulgons for shipment, and no name being then 
forthcoming, they went out under the distorted title of Malgarans. 
Their coming to the West from that section led to the belief that they 
were made somewhere in Central Asia, and since that time the 
Armenian dealers have made of " Malgaran " an omnibus name for 
all the odds and ends of unidentified Asiatic weaving. 

TRANSCAUCASIAN FABRICS 

One might suppose that, shut off from their Daghestan neigh- 
bors by so grim a barrier as the main chain of the Caucasus, the 
weaving peoples of the lower districts would have looked to Persia 
for artistic inspiration, and that their textiles would rather have fol- 
lowed the patterns of Kirman, Sehna or Feraghan than the severe 
models of the North. But it is not so ; the majority of Transcaucasian 
rugs are more in conformity with the Daghestan theory of design 
than are some of the products of Daghestan itself. 

They are made on the southern slope of the Caucasus and in the 
country included between the Kur and Aras rivers. The wool supply 
here leaves little to be desired, since these plateaus are famous for the 
quality of their sheep. The old rugs of the region generally are 
marked by durability and by the permanence and harmonious blend- 
ing of their colors. Like the Daghestans, they were originally made 
with no thought that they were to be extensively sold, and were found 
only in small sizes. Nowadays nearly the whole output is destined 
for export, and rugs of all dimensions are produced. This is especially 
true of the Soumaks, which, under the more seductive but wholly 

116 



CAUCASIAN 

erroneous title of " Kashmir," have attained wide popularity. They 
are now made as large as twelve by fifteen feet. 

Karabagh. — These, in point of quantity, constitute nowadays 
a very considerable portion of the whole Transcaucasian output. 
The old carpets of Karabagh were excellent, although they never, 
within the memory of man, attained to the high artistic standard 
which has prevailed in the products of cities farther south. The 
finest of them were still sufficiently substantial to rank as useful 
rather than decorative fabrics. Competent judges declare them to 
have been better than the best Kazaks. 

The old province of Karabagh lies to the north of the Aras 
river, in the angle which that historic stream forms with the Kur. As 
an ancient dependency of Persia it acquired the Iranian mastery of 
color, and in the old pieces there is as fine a display of the dyer's skill 
as in any carpet of Kirman. The floral elements entered in, too, but 
most of the forms were stiff and conventional and the distribution 
was in the manner peculiar to the Caucasus. The rug weavers of 
Karabagh are divided, like those of other provinces, into two classes — 
the Hats or nomads and the Takhta-Kapon (wooden door), which 
signifies the villagers, or people who dwell in houses. Both are 
Shiah Mohammedans. There are many Russian Armenians, too, in 
the towns. The nomad weavings have here, as elsewhere, stood out 
longest against the tendencies of the time, and some of them, even 
now, are good imitations of old-time rugs. 

Since the province passed out from under Persian control, the 
carpets have borrowed more and more from the patterns of the 
North. It is to the North, now, that the people turn as the source 
of power, authority, learning, wealth, everything. Some of the later 
rugs are good copies of the Daghestans in point of design, and even 
of color arrangement. But as textiles they have neither the quality 
nor the finish of the genuine Daghestan. They have the Daghestan 

117 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

brightness, and more, but their comparative coarseness, and, it may be, 
the inferor skill of the dyers, has deprived them of all that might be 
termed fine effects. Where the Daghestan is brilliant, the modern 
Karabagh is loud, in white, blue, red and yellow. This is caused 
chiefly by startling masses of white, either in the grounds of the 
border or in the central field. 

The production of Karabaghs, which can be transported from 
the looms to the Russian railway in two or three days, has of late 
been pushed forward without stint. The range of designs is almost 
limitless. Anything will serve. In some of them the field is mapped 
off into hard squares, like those of the well-known Bokhara pattern. 
In others there is no pretense at body pattern at all, merely the 
border stripes surrounding a field of solid color. Western carpets 
and Wilton rugs are also copied. In yet others, set devices of uncer- 
tain origin, but strangely resembling the spatter patterns seen in 
modern China silks, are repeated in several alternating colors, and, 
with little other attempt at design, make up the entire filling of the 
rug. The effect is blotchy, inconsistent, and anything but pleasing, 
especially where, as is often the case, an effort is made to retain in 
the borders the pure Daghestan character. 

The Muscovite influence is perceptible lately, in more or less 
successful attempts at genre figures, such, for example, as a full-length 
representation of a Russian official, in gray uniform, and with a red 
and white bandanna protruding with most un-Oriental suggestion 
from the skirt pocket of his coat. This simulacrum of authority is 
pictured upon a black field, and set off with nondescript figures in 
several colors. The borders have no stripe arrangement, but consist 
of actual flowers, grouped about the centre-piece in a manner purely 
rococo. 

In the borders of some of the original Karabaghs is discovered 
the reciprocal trefoil, as it is called by European experts, who declare 

118 



CAUCASIAN 

it to bean essential mark of the so-called " Polish" carpets and other 
famous fabrics believed to be related to them. 1 This device will be 
noticed later in modified form in many Mosul and Persian as well as 
Turkoman and Beluchistan fabrics. 

A point of wide difference between the Daghestan and Kara- 
bagh fabrics is the fringe. In the latter-day rugs, instead of taking 
the trouble to elaborate the fringe, the weaver simply withdraws the 
rod which holds the warp, and the looped ends are left uncut, to do 
duty on one end as fringe ; on the other the warp and weft are woven 
into a web just wide enough to be turned back and sewed. The warp 
is white or brown wool ; the weft is sometimes colored throughout. 
The sides in the old pieces are usually finished with a narrow sel- 
vage ; in the moderns they are apt to be overcast, which saves time 
and labor. In the poorer grades of moderns heavy yarn is used to 
make up for the wretchedly coarse weaving, and dyes and workman- 
ship are unmistakably bad. Yet these horrors are put forward for 
sale as "antique Daghestans." 

" Soumak," Shemakha or "Kashmir!' — It is the shaggy ends of 
the colored nap-yarns, left loose at the back of these rugs, which has 
given them the name of " Kashmir." The dealers foster the title for 
the monetary value of the suggestion it embodies, and in some quar- 
ters a belief prevails that the rugs are really the product of that vale 



1 " The intercourse between the East and the Venetian and other Italian States in the Middle 
Ages infused an Oriental spirit into European work after the sixteenth century. About that time a 
Pole named Mersherski visited Persia and India, and on his return to Warsaw brought with him native 
workmen, with whom he established a manufactory of Oriental fabrics in that city. He had procured 
kincobs and other stuffs in India and carpets in Persia, which he used as models. In the kincobs gold 
and silver threads were woven with silk and cotton, and many imitations of these are still in existence. 
But whether he four.d rugs in the East with this mixture is uncertain. Of the carpets made by him, 
having gold and silver interwoven with silk, very few remain to our day. . . The Polish handicrafts- 
men seemed at first to have only copied originals, but gradually they worked details into their designs 
which, though tinged with Eastern ideas, are a departure from the old models, and if carefully exam- 
ined these productions present a singular mixture of the old Persian character with quite a new ele- 
ment. . . . It is as if the Mongolians who invaded Poland in 1241 had left traces of their art, 
which remain as a permanent influence." — Robinson: "Eastern Carpets." 

119 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

in northern India, whose shawls, until their manufacture was debauched 
and ultimately destroyed by European traders, were accounted the 
most perfect textiles in the world. 

The true name of the so-called "Kashmir" rugs is Shemakha, 
derived from the city where they are marketed. This has been dis- 
torted into Soumak and Sumak. It is best to continue to call them 
by their recognized name. 

Shemakha was capital of the ancient Khanate of Shirvan, which 
was ceded to Russia by Persia in 1813. The province lies along the 
coast of the Caspian, as far south as the river Kur. To-day it is 
divided into two districts — Shemakha and Djevat. Both appertain 
to the government of Baku, the terminal of the trans-Caspian railroad, 
and up to a few years ago a great rug-collecting port. Shemakha is 
a market-place for Daghestan, Kabistan, " Tzitzi," and Shirvan rugs, 
as well as those of its own district. 

The patterns are mainly the geometrical forms found in all 
Daghestan fabrics, and for a very good reason, since the district where 
they are made is in the range of the mountains, and with only the 
ridge at its back separating it from Daghestan. 

There is no difficulty in discerning the likeness between the 
Shirvan and Soumak rugs. In many old examples the designs and 
colors are practically identical ; the difference, as has been stated, 
is in the texture. Both resemble the Daghestan in device and color 
distribution, though the treatment is different. 

The Soumaks are woven with a flat stitch, which with the loose 
yarns at the back of the rug, constitutes the only ground for the 
fictitious title of " Kashmir." These peculiarities identify them beyond 
all doubt, for no other rugs resemble them in this respect. 

They formerly came only in small or medium sizes, and the oldest 
specimens are fine, carefully woven, fast dyed, and beautiful rugs. 
The demand for large pieces has been met with fabrics made on the 



CAUCASIAN 

same plan, but with coarse, grayish-brown warp in place of the white 
wool, and with a heavy, common quality of surface yarn, loosely 
woven to save labor. The dyes in many of these "bargain-counter" 
pieces are distressingly bad, and the evil is growing as time goes on. 
The designs are also deteriorating. Some consolation is to be had, 
however, from the fact that even now something like ten or even 
fifteen per cent, of the Shemakhas which find their way to the Ameri- 
can market are made in close keeping with the old requirements. 

The stitch may be called an over-and-over method. Sometimes 
each turn of the surface yarn in which the pattern is produced takes 
in two threads of the warp, sometimes three. The stitches lie slant- 
wise of the fabric, and each row reverses the direction of that employed 
in the preceding row, so that the grain of the surface resembles an 
ordinary herring-bone weave. The weft is in most cases carried across 
and back after every two rows of stitches. In the old carpets it was 
carried one way after a single row was finished, and back after the 
next row, making a fine, closely compacted body. In such there were 
tenor twelve rows of stitches to the inch perpendicular, not, of course, 
counting the weft threads. In the moderns, eight stitches to the inch 
is the average of a good grade. The coarse qualities have as low as 
six, the yarn being very large and heavy, and the weft is thrown across 
one way after every three rows. 

Very coarse Karabagh and Shirvan designs of all sorts, shipped 
from Shemakha, have come to be known among Caucasian traders as 
Shemakinski — and the term is a synonym for bad weaving, as Kaba- 
Karaman is in Anatolia. 

Shirvan. — So far as numbers go, the rugs sold as Shirvans are 
well nigh as important a part of the Caucasian output as are the 
Karabagdis. In texture the average modern Shirvan is rather better 
than the Karabagh, but deterioration, particularly in the matter of 
dyes, is apparent in many of the grades. 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

The earlier Shirvans are not plentiful in the markets now. They 
are well made, and have all the old richness and stability of color. A 
feature of many of them is the dissonance between border and central 
field, in color and design. In the borders, for instance, some of them 
carry one broad stripe, sustained by narrow guard-stripes, and dis- 
playing in brilliant red upon a white ground, and with no trace of 
other colors, a combination design of the arabesque order, reinforced 
with conventionalized flower patterns suggesting the Ladiks, or more 
remotely, the Ghiordes, although more definite than either of these. 
All the border area presents this arrangement of red and white. In 
the body of the rug the ground-color is apt to be a rich and lustrous 
blue, almost of the peacock tinge, upon which is laid, in yellow, with 
the addition of some red, the diagonal lattice-work common in 
Daghestans ; but here it is drawn in the softer, more irregular fashion 
of the Mosuls. Others of these antiques have the selfsame fine 
geometrical designs shown in the Soumaks, but knotted, of course, 
instead of worked in the pileless stitch. The borders sometimes 
depart from the Caucasian forms and, as in some old Karabaghs, show 
separate realistic flower devices at regular intervals. These flowers 
are frequently in the profile drawing, declared by some experts to be 
an Asia Minor characteristic, and are devoid of all the rectilinear 
Caucasian character. 

The modern Shirvans are a multitude, and serve well the pur- 
poses of ordinary use. Their designs have not undergone the degen- 
eration of the Karabaghs, but for the most part follow quite stead- 
fastly the old models. The better qualities, especially those which 
show traces of Persian influence, are often marketed for the Tartar 
type of Shiraz rugs made in the Persian provinces of Fars and Lar. 
To forestall this substitution is sometimes difficult. The materials of 
the foundation offer small aid. For both warp and weft of the best 
Shiraz fabrics of the sort mentioned white wool is used, but in the 



CAUCASIAN 

coarse moderns black wool or even goat's-hair may be found ; in the 
same fashion the antique Shirvans have wool foundation throughout, 
while the modern warp is of coarse brown or white wool, or a mixed 
yarn of two strands, one brown and the other white. The weft, if not 
of wool, is of cotton, and four threads are sometimes put in after each 
row of knots, as in the genuine Kazaks and Samarkands. The most 
reliable way of distinguishing them is by the peculiar checked or pat- 
terned particolored selvage at the ends, referred to in the description 
of the Shiraz rugs. In nine out of ten of the Shiraz fabrics it will be 
found in some form, in the Shirvans seldom if ever. The ends of 
Shirvans have the cloth web woven of the warp and weft threads, 
extending an inch or more beyond the pile, in addition to which 
many have a fringe made by knotting the gathered strands of the 
warp after the manner of ordinary machine-made fringe. In many 
moderns the warp ends are simply left loose for a finishing, to save 
time. In some of them the sides, instead of being overcast or sel- 
vaged, have the body finish. 

Kazak. — There is a tribe of nomad Kazaks inhabiting the hills 
about Nova Bayezid and Lake Goktcha in Erivan. They are an old 
offshoot of the great hordes whose home is in the Kirghiz steppes and 
whose kinsmen are scattered over the southern districts of Russia 
away to the banks of the Don. "Kazak" means virtually a rough- 
rider. It describes the whole race of these restless, roaming, trouble- 
some people, who, in a sense, are born, live, and die in the saddle. It 
is the original of the name Cossack, which is familiar to all the world. 

The Kazaks of the Kirghiz steppes weave rugs, but, it is con- 
ceded, chiefly for home use. Nearly all the Kazak fabrics which come to 
market are made — or were originally made — in the district of Transcau- 
casia just mentioned. This Kazak colony, which invaded the neighbor- 
hood while yet Transcaucasia was reckoned in the Persian domain, is 
Sunni Mohammedan in faith. For a long time its rugs were made 

123 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

after the models of the North, but of late have begun to show more 
likeness to the Karabagh type made throughout the surrounding 
country. This is chiefly the work, not of the Kazaks, but of Armeni- 
ans, who inhabit the villages in the district, and who, having learned 
the weaving trade from the shepherds, proceeded to develop a type 
for themselves, better suited, they thought, to the requirements of 
the market. It leaned toward the Karabaghs. From Nova Bayezid, 
where most of the rugs are exchanged for other commodities, the 
Armenian storekeepers make large shipments from time to time. 
About seventy-five per cent, of these are of the old-fashioned Kazak 
order. The remainder are degenerate Kazaks or out and out Karabaghs. 

Antique Kazak fabrics of the best sort are few now. Occa- 
sionally an old, patched, threadbare specimen comes to light to rebuke 
the latter-day products which bear the name. Bad dyes have made 
a mockery of many of the moderns. Great stains of some unstable 
color, usually magenta, soaked over perhaps one-third of the fabric, 
tell the sad story of their deterioration. Many a dealer has had these 
loose-dyed rugs left upon his hands. 

The older ones have a remarkable softness. They are thick and 
heavy ; the tufts or knots of the pile are longer than those of almost 
any old Oriental rug. The peculiar feature is that four threads of 
the weft are thrown across after every row of knots, as in the Samar- 
kands. In this way the tufts forming the pile are made to overlap 
each other smoothly instead of standing nearly upright, as do those 
of most other fabrics. The only saving accomplished by thus bur- 
dening the rug with weft-threads is that of time. 

The original designs are strong and characteristic to a degree — 
big, geometrical figures, upon fields of magnificent red or green, which 
half a century of wear and exposure will scarcely suffice to dim. 
Throughout the field are distributed detached figures — crosses, parti- 
colored diamonds, squares and circles and disproportioned representa- 
tions of birds, trees, animals and human beings, all in the most archaic 

124 



CAUCASIAN 

drawing and most primitive color. In the borders are many varia- 
tions of the latch-hook feature, and a reciprocal saw-tooth pattern 
distinctive of some Caucasian fabrics. This same border often ap- 
pears in the Persian Sarabands. Persian weavers call it the sechan- 
disih — " teeth of the rat." 

The Kazaks are usually finished with a stout selvage at the sides, 
and at the ends with a shaggy fringe, which may be omitted from 
one end to allow the web formed from warp and weft to be turned 
back and hemmed. The most common sizes are from three to six 
feet wide by five to eight feet long. 

The whole effect, whether the rug be of great or small dimen- 
sions, is stoutness. Many of the older ones are almost square, one 
measurement exceeding the other sometimes by only three or four 
inches. Occasionally an example is found with one end finished in a 
knotted rope's-end fringe resembling that mentioned as belonging to 
the coarser rugs of the Mosul province in Turkey. 

In the later products there is a tendency to imitate some of the 
more ornamental patterns of the Kabistans. The stripe arrangement 
of the field, and lumbering versions of the pear pattern are seen, but 
in nearly all cases there is preserved one figure thoroughly typical of 
the old Kazaks, a conventional form which will be recognized at once 
from its likeness to the tarantula, of which it is probably an actual 
representation, but having become a standard element in the decora- 
tion of this region, it has taken on complications and formal ornamen- 
tation which in a measure obscure the resemblance. ' In some of the 



"' On voit sous la lettre ' B ' un tapis Boukhare, qui se distingue par 1'eclat des couleurs et par 
un remarquable melange de dessins rappelant des scorpions, des tarentules, les constants corapagnons 
de voyage des traditions populaires. Pasde conte ou Ton ne voie jouer un role a la tarentule Kara- 
coute, qui est considere comme particulierement venimeuse." — N. Simakoff: "L'Art de I'Asie 
Centrale." 

" Boukhare" is used by Simakoff to designate the whole of Turkestan. The carpets which he 
here calls "tapis Boukhare" were the Yomuds. The manner in which they come *"0 have many of 
the border patterns common to the Caucasians is made clear in the section on Yomud, under the 
general class of Turkoman fabrics. 

125 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

better modern pieces this idea has been developed in the most artistic 
manner, two of these figures appearing in great size in the central field, 
upon a ground of splendid red. The borders have the heavy patterns 
typical of Kazaks. 

MOSUL FABRICS 

The diversity resultant upon mixed population is nowhere so 
manifest as in the rugs collected in the country about Mosul, the old 
city in the heart of Mesopotamia. This territory is traversed by the 
river Tigris. Since the beginning of history the tide of conquest has 
ebbed and flowed mightily here where now half ruined walls inclose a 
straggling and moribund town, and serve in seasons of flood to avert 
the encroachments of the river. A little way outside the gates of 
Mosul are the ruins of Nineveh, Senn and Nimrud. 

Here Persians followed Scythians as conquerors, and were them- 
selves succeeded in turn by Macedonians, Tartars, Arabs and Turko- 
mans. Under every sway Mosul was a capital. That it has been a 
centre of manufacture finds proof in the one word muslin, which had 
its derivation here. In the population of the district are represented 
far more than half of all the races which go to make up the Ottoman 
Empire of to-day. In the city and its adjacent villages are gathered 
many distinct nationalities, all living in perpetual dread of the wild 
Kurdish and Bedouin neighbors who infest the unguarded highways 
or roam over the surrounding mountains, preying upon commerce and 
travel, and disclaiming both subjection to Osmanli and faith in Islam. 
The Mosul fabrics include also rugs made in the mountains of old 
Armenia and Erivan, and others from the south toward Syria. 

The multitude of designs common to this strangely peopled re- 
gion presents not only all the characteristic forms of the Caucasian 
class, but well nigh every device which Oriental ornamentation 
knows, thoygh most of them are wrought roughly. Every corner of 

126 



CAUCASIAN 

the East, even as far as China, has contributed some trick of texture 
or design to the varied fabrics of Mosul, yet most of them show 
affinity with the Caucasian lot. The fact that so many of the Mosul 
tribes are out of the reach of trade influences speaks well for the hon- 
esty of their product, and examination, in the main, bears out the in- 
ference. Wool, dyes and workmanship are well up to the average, 
considering always the weavers' lights, and the designs, diverse as 
they are, still preserve a thoroughly Eastern character. Nearly all 
the rugs included in the Mosul shipments are, however, more or less 
coarse, heavy, and suggestive in their patterns and construction of 
the rude life which prevails in the entire region. 

Mosu/ Proper. — The two characteristics which, taken in conjunc- 
tion, provide the first step toward identification of these fabrics are : 
First, the soft, flocky nature of the pile ; second, a marked tendency 
to the use of yellow and warm, yellowish or brownish reds in the 
coloring. A great deal of camel's-hair and goat's-hairyf/z'^ is used in 
the pile. The camel's-hair in natural color contributes a yellow tone, 
but aside from that, saffron seems to have taken a firm hold upon the 
favor of the dyers in Mosul. In the antiques, which have a glossy 
finish, this prevalence of yellow gives an impression, when the rugs are 
seen from a distance, that they have undergone some process of 
gilding. Blue and green are chiefly used in small areas, to brighten 
the figures in the border stripes ; if in large areas, they are almost 
invariably in dark shades. In all the multiplicity of designs, the 
Caucasian influence is plainly visible. Some feature of it can be 
found in almost every rug, although the patterns are loosely wrought 
and, owing in a measure to the length of pile, fine definition is impos- 
sible. For example, the parallel bars — horizontal or diagonal — inclos- 
ing rows of small figures, found in the body of the Kabistans and 
Tzitzis, are frequent in the Mosuls, but the small patterns are usually 
queer reciprocal key devices, or geometrical tree forms, although 

127 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

sometimes the pear is found. The diagonal lattice-work of the 
Daghestan group has its place in the Mosuls, too. Thanks to 
Persian influence, the Mosul weavers are prone to do with color shad- 
ing what those of Daghestan do with the oft-repeated latch-hook, in 
softening the contrast between one body of color and another. The 
latch-hook in great measure disappears in the Mosuls, although it is 
found in some rugs of the Turkish class farther to the westward, 
made by nomads who have trod this path in their migrations. The 
barber-pole stripe, first noticed in the Kabistans, is very common 
here, and the large geometrical figures used as the central design of 
so many Daghestans and Kabistans are often found performing the 
same function in Mosuls. The Persian and Kurdish influences are 
also apparent. The pear device is especially frequent, but in hard 
forms, so rectilinear in some instances that at first glance it is scarcely 
recognized. It is a hexagon, with a particolored square in the 
centre, and the elongation merely a projecting angular hook in yellow 
or red. The same form is found in the decorative art of India. The 
reciprocal trefoil border stripe, in dark red and blue as a rule, runs 
through a great number of Mosuls. There is found, too, the star 
emblem seen the world over in the decoration of synagogues, pos- 
sibly an adaptation of the seal of Solomon or a copy of the Persian 
symbol, but held by some writers to have been originally representa- 
tive of divinity. 

The borders are most often three in number, and separated by 
heavy lines of very dark brown or blue. Geometrical or crude floral 
designs are used, but almost invariably one at least of the border 
stripes carries some well-known Caucasian pattern. Very often a 
three- or four-inch outside band of camel's-hair or some other yarn in 
the natural brown color runs around all four sides of the rue, inclos- 
ing the whole design as in a frame, and emphasizing the yellow tone 
which, as was said in the beginning, is a Mosul mark. The sides of the 

128 



PLATE XIII 



Plate XIII. Kulah Prayer Ri 

Loaned by Dr. O. Ernest Hill 

While of the coarser quality of old style Kulahs, this rug contains the 
features which seem to have been essentially of Kulah origin, though they ap- 
pear oftentimes in the Ghiordes and Ladik prayer rugs. The multiplication of 
peculiarly marked small stripes to cover the border tract and the serrated 
drawing of the prayer arch are chief among the Kulah marks. Wear and re- 
peated washing have dimmed the areas of golden brown which in so many old 
rugs of this variety is the predominant color. 



CAUCASIAN 

rug are overcast and the ends finished with a narrow, thick selvage 
if the warp be cotton, with a fringe if it be wool. 

Turkman or Genghis. — In the sandhills along the border lines 
between Mosul province and Persia, roam bands of Turkomans. 
They are otherwise known to the Ottoman population as the 
" Genghis people," after Genghis Khan, in whose warlike train their 
forbears came westward from Central Asia. They dwell in tents 
and change their abode with the seasons. They are part of the 
mixed Turkish peoples who are scattered all through the country 
west of the Oxus. The title of Turkman was given by the Persians 
in whose service they fought during the interminable wars of the 
Middle Ages. It implies "a resemblance to Turks," these tribes hav- 
ing, from their long residence in the Iranian country, lost many of 
their race characteristics, both of temperament and physical appear- 
ance. They retain, however, their bold, warlike disposition and fond- 
ness for outdoor life. 

In the rugs which they send to the annual fair near Mosul and 
to the bazaars in Tiflis, their race traits and their manner of living- 
are plainly to be read. The fabrics are exceedingly heavy, which 
is natural since they are made to be spread upon the ground out of 
doors. The warp is a three-strand thread of goat's-hair or brown 
wool, and the pile about twice as long as that of the Shirvans. There 
are seldom fewer than forty knots to the square inch, and they are 
woven from fine wool which the women of the tribes spin. 

The designs consist principally of the geometrical devices found 
in the Caucasian fabrics, but the nomad elements of crudity and sim- 
plicity and a prevalence of small, separate figures are discernible. 
The Persian influence sometimes crops out in the use of the vine 
with flowers attached. The Turkman, whose nomad impatience and 
poverty of artistic conception make it impossible for him to reproduce 
the complex designs of Persian carpets, has by crude repetition of the 

129 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

easier border elements made a central design of his own. He often 
has a series of these border patterns running side by side through the 
whole length of the body of the rug. The undulation, which in 
most Persian designs is gracefully curved, he treats in the less diffi- 
cult rectilinear fashion, and his versions of the palmettes and lotus 
buds which the vine carries at its curved intervals are severe in draw- 
ing and immensely unlike what they are meant for. The whole effect 
is ambitious, and pleasing, too, perhaps because it is so badly done. 
He repeats the same idea in the border, using for adornment of the 
vine, for example, a white cross, evidently of floral derivation, upon a 
red octagon, instead of the more difficult rosette which belongs to the 
pattern in its purity. The pear is freely employed, both in the body, 
where it is used in alternating rows of red and blue, and in the border 
stripe, where it relieves other figures. Nomad authorship is shown 
by the detached bird and animal figures in the body of the rugs and 
occasionally in the border. The sides are selvaged and the ends fin- 
ished with a small fringe. In this respect the Turkman follows the 
urbane rather than the nomad custom. 

In Constantinople, as in the American market, miscellaneous 
bales of rugs, all measuring between three and five feet in width, and 
six and eight feet in length, are jobbed under the name of Genghis, 
or, as the bills of lading have it, " Guendje." They are made up of 
the odds and ends of the Shirvans, Karabaghs, Mosuls and other sec- 
ondary fabrics of the Caucasian class, and usually come from Eliz- 
abetpol, the old Armeno-Persian name of which was Gandja. Of 
late a great manufacture of this sort of stuff has been organized by 
Armenian middlemen in the Baghdad district, the output of which 
is being marketed in this country. In addition to the rugs named 
some Persians, Hamadans and the like, are taken for patterns, and 
several low-grade mats woven on each warp. 

Some Varieties of Kurdish Rugs. — More striking contrast could 

130 



CAUCASIAN 

scarcely be imagined than that between the rough, common, mis- 
shapen rugs made by the Kurds in the north of Mosul and about 
Lake Van, and the masterly ones turned out by their kinsmen in the 
upland towns of Western Persia. These " Mosul Kurdish " rugs are 
of the same general character as the Genghis just described. In 
ornament the Genghis are accounted somewhat better, but the 
Kurdish fabrics are more closely woven, heavier, and more durable. 
They have, to be sure, fewer stitches to the inch, but the pile yarn — 
and also, indeed, the warp and weft — are much heavier. The rugs 
are rough and to the last degree savage in appearance. In the con- 
glomeration of colors a certain rude strength is manifest, but 
although the general effect is warm and lustrous the absence of any- 
thing like decorative refinement is complete. In many of them a 
great deal of dark brown wool in its natural state determines the 
color tones. Brown sheep's-wool or coarse goat's-hair thread is taken 
for the foundation. The sides are overcast or selvaged at the 
caprice or convenience of the weaver. The ends have usually the 
nomadic web extension, and the braids with which they are finished 
complete their barbaric extravagance. The ends of the warp are 
plaited into tight, flat strands, like the Mexican lariat, about two 
inches apart and knotted at the ends. In some examples several of 
these are worked together, and form small, compact, triangular plaited 
mats, from the outer point of which the braids depend. These rugs 
are utterly lacking in symmetry, and sometimes are so crooked that 
they have to be cut and sewn together again to bring them into any- 
thing like regular shape. 

Similar to these Mosul Kurd fabrics in texture and quality are 
those sometimes sold under the name of Kozan, an Asia Minor vilayet 
to the west of Mosul. They are finished with selvage on the sides 
and a long fringe at the ends instead of the plaits referred to above. 



131 



X 
TURKISH 

THE substitute term for Turkish in the vocabulary of the rug- 
seller is Smyrna, or was so until the American manufactures 
began to bear that name. But in any event it is in essence 
a misnomer, since in Smyrna no rugs are made for market, nor have 
been, within the memory of man. Smyrna is essentially a mercantile 
capital. Next to Constantinople, it is the chief point of export for 
Oriental rugs and the products of all districts have thus come to bear 
its name in vulgar usage, although no fabrics are sold in the whole- 
sale market in Smyrna save those made in Asia Minor. 

The Turkish class, though commercially very large, is small in 
the number of its varieties. A line drawn from Trebizond, on the 
Black Sea, southwesterly to the head of the Gulf of Iskanderum, in 
the Mediterranean, would cut off the Anatolian peninsula from the 
Asiatic mainland. It would have to the west of it all the territory 
whose rugs may properly be called Turkish. Those which alone 
have shadow of right to the name Smyrna are a component group of 
the Turkish class. They are made chiefly in the towns of the two 
western provinces, Aidin and Broussa, which are directly accessible 
from Smyrna by rail, or in their remoter quarters by caravan, and 
which find in that city their most convenient and, in fact, inevitable 

132 



TURKISH 

point of sale and shipment. This proximity to a commercial centre 
and close communication through it with the Western world has given 
to the rug industry of these provinces a double character not found 
in any other section of the Orient ; has in fact in some degree robbed 
it of its distinctively Eastern quality, so that although many of the 
old-time Turkish rugs were of remarkable workmanship, fully ninety 
per cent, of the fabrics made there to-day are representative of 
nothing save the passion of the West for this form of floor covering, 
the aptitude of Western designers at devising new combinations of 
Oriental figures and of color, and the amazing, possibly unsuspected 
ability of the Turkish weavers to do under pressure a great amount 
of work in a short time. 

The peninsula, so far as its rugs are concerned, is merely a work- 
shop, and Smyrna is its counting room.' The great burden of the 
output in the Western district is, as I have said, made upon orders 
from outside markets. Some of these are general ; some are specific ; 
but altogether they have sufficed to wean the workman from old 
materials and old methods. He aims now ^at volume rather than 
excellence. Large business sagacity, to be sure, has been shown in 
the selection of this particular region for the enterprise. It presents 
facilities for shipment, and it not only produces readily and plentifully 
all the materials used in the construction of rugs, but numbers among 
its population a representation from almost every Eastern race. 
There is no form of weaving which may be needed in filling a busi- 

1 The system of dealing in the Smyrna and Constantinople markets is infinitely complex, made 
so, doubtless, by the Turkish dealers as a means for gaining an advantage in intricate transaction with 
Western buyers. Out of the accumulation of facts bearing upon this matter these will be of general 
interest: In wholesale dealings in Smyrna the big carpets made throughout Asia Minor are sold by the 
square "pick" — five square feet — while the Bergamo, Meles, and other small rugs are disposed of 
by the piece. Payment is made in the medjit — twenty Turkish piastres. In Constantinople the mod- 
ern Persians, Sultanabad, Tabriz, Herez, Feraghan, and the like, are sold at so many francs per 
square metre, and the antiques at so many Turkish pounds apiece. The Caucasian and Tartarian, 
excepting perhaps some of the large Bokharas and Afghanistan nomad rugs recently sent to market, 
are disposed of at so many francs apiece and never by the square foot. 

133 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

ness order, but in this hodgepodge of peoples men and women con- 
versant with it can be found, and the conditions of the country make 
it certain that their work may be had at a price which warrants a 
goodly margin of profit to every person through whose hands the 
fabric may pass before it reaches the user. In Afion-Karahissar, for 
example, Armenian women weave for from four to seven cents a day. 

The singular conditions prevalent here present a difficult dilemma 
to the writer. Each weaving town has in effect two classes of fabrics. 
To prosecute faithfully the purpose of this book description should 
be given, to the end of identification, of the typical antique rugs for 
which some of the districts have been renowned. They have a dis- 
tinctive character which the new products have not.' The modern 
fabrics made in certain towns of Asia Minor bear no relation to the 
antiques made in the same places, so far as likeness is concerned. 
These towns have in the modern fabrics almost no distinctive types 
at all. They produce loose, heavy rugs of conglomerate design, 
which recall nothing so much as young Falconbridge, who " bought 
his doublet in Italy, his round-hose in France, his bonnet in Germany, 
and his behavior everywhere." 

Less, then, to emphasize this difference than to avoid inadequacy, 
it is necessary to make clear something of the character of each of 
the older carpets, specimens of which are occasionally encountered, 
before speaking of the coarser latter-day fabrics which are rushed out 
from the looms of the same towns to meet the demands of trade, and 
which, no matter how much their existence may discomfort the ama- 
teur, are proving themselves of vast worth and service to the house- 

1 All authorities upon ornament set forth that there is no original and distinctive Turkish system 
of ornamentation: that the custom of the Turks, as conquerors, was to command the services of ar- 
tisans ; that the Turkish type, so far as it may be said to exist, is a combination of Persian and 
Arabic. Leroy Beaulieu remarks that the Turks show in everything an imitation of the Persian 
genius, and it is matter of history that the Osmanli Turks, after each successful incursion upon Persian 
territory, sent captives of the artisan class to Constantinople to weave, carve and carry on other art 
industries for the beautification of Turkish palaces. 

134 



TURKISH 

holder who has a floor to cover and a careless, hard-heeled company 
to tread it. 

KOXIEH FABRICS 

Konieh province and the districts which surround it exemplify- 
perfectly the diversity in topography, climate and population which 
mark the whole Anatolian peninsula. The plateaus of this section 
afford all the conditions required for wool growing ; the valleys which 
traverse it are fertile in the production of dye materials. 

The general methods of construction are similar throughout the 
entire group, but the difference between the varieties, in quality and 
appearance, is clear. Those which come from the north, about Kir- 
Shehr and the vicinity of the salt lake Tcholli, and as far as ancient 
Caesarea," are of sterling texture and good color and design, while the 
products of the south, of Nigdeh and Karaman, among the foothills 
of the Taurus mountains, are rough, and made in evident ignorance 
of any known decorative system. The designs of these are crude, 
and the colors, while largely vegetable, and striking in the mass, 
are arranged in utter disregard of theoretical harmony. 

Konieh Proper. — Konieh — ancient Iconium — the name has its 
origin in the Greek word ixwvt) (picture), on account of the legend 
of the locality — has never until very lately ranked with other towns 
of Asia Minor as a rug-producing place. Even under the old dis- 
pensation, its weavings had not the wide fame and favor accorded 
to those of Ghiordes, Kulah, Bergamo, or Ladik. They were 
made more strictly for local use than perhaps any of these. For this 
reason, probably, the antique specimens from the Konieh looms are 
more rarely met with nowadays. They are, nevertheless, of eminent 
merit, and though pursuing a different theory of color from the rugs 
of " Smyrna" towns, exhibit skill in the dyeing and a wholesome 
though sometimes not over-delicate taste in the adjustment of color. 

1 Kaisarieh. 

135 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

Most of the antique Koniehs which have found their way 
over-seas are scdjadeh, odjaklik, and yesteklik — not, as is the case 
with those of the other cities named, for the greater part prayer 
rugs. The antique odjaklik, or hearth rug, of Konieh abounds in 
warm rich color. It is worthy of notice, too, that all the hues have 
a peculiar luminous quality when exposed to a slanting light such as 
falls upon them from the fire-place, a glow that they do not reveal 
when looked at point blank, in the light of common day. They are 
constructed with this effect in view. One excellent example had at 
the time of writing lain for several months in a pile of small antiques 
of different varieties, in a large New York rug establishment. Piece 
after piece had been sold from the pile, and it had frequently been 
replenished from new consignments, but the old Konieh, in every 
way one of the rarest and most desirable possessions of the lot, had 
always been relegated, after examination, to its old place and the more 
showy fabrics chosen. It was not, as a fact, of an appearance to catch 
at first glance the fancy of the average purchaser, yet at the time the 
author of this book saw it there was the best of reasons for believing 
that it was the only rug of its sort to be seen for sale in New York. 

The feature of the odjaklik design, found in the majority of rugs 
made for the hearth, is that it has in some fashion or other the conical 
or pointed formation at both ends of the central field. It is as if the 
field were made up of two prayer rugs, joined base to base. In the 
piece just referred to an elongated hexagon was set in the central 
oblong, with its acute angles pointing toward the ends. The ground- 
color of the field was a singular, lustrous quality of sky blue. Just 
inside the border stripes and running all about the edges of the field, 
was a row of pinks, drawn in profile and arranged with perfect 
regularity. In each of the corner spaces left by the hexagon was a 
floral figure of some magnitude, supported by an elongated device, 
apparently of animal derivation, on either side, and by rectilinear 

136 



TURKISH 

flower stalks. The sides of the hexagon forming the two angles at 
the ends were serrated like the sides of the arch in most Kulah 
prayer rugs. Inside the yellow and red defining-lines of the hexagon 
ran a complete circumference of rosebuds arranged in the same man- 
ner as the pinks about the boundary of the oblong. These flowers 
were as realistic and lifelike as any found in Persian weaving. Then 
the entire area of the hexagon was filled with a rich growth of 
flowers, made up of two flowering shrubs or plants, springing from 
two jardinieres, one at each of the terminal angles. The branches 
and blooms met and mingled at the middle of the space in a 
fashion which, though governed by the Anatolian formality of arrange- 
ment, had yet much of Persian warmth and profusion. The 
ground of the main border stripe was blue, of a very deep shade, in 
contrast with the brilliant sky blue of the centre. Upon it the wav- 
ing vine was traced in red, in angles instead of curves, and with its 
flowers, yellow and pale blue, putting forth upon straight stalks. The 
narrow borders, or guard stripes, were the small, uniform, repeated 
stripes found in Ghiordes and Kulah, except that they were in red and 
white instead of black and white, and were ornamented with the 
barber pole device of the Caucasians, instead of the small patterns 
which adorn those characteristic stripes in antique Ghiordes and 
Kulah rugs. All around the outside was a narrow band of the pile, 
in the same deep red which was dominant throughout the entire 
fabric. Its brilliancy had seemingly been softened by age, but it still 
glowed with a strange sort of under light. 

The ends were finished with a narrow, colored web, and reaching 
partly across one end — the rest had been worn away — was a sel- 
vage outside' the web, formed by weaving back the threads of the 
warp. This had originally been the finishing of both ends of the rug 
and the sole bit that remained showed what long and severe wear the 
old piece had known. But it had still a thickness and evenness of 

137 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

pile far superior to that of many new fabrics. Its pile must have 
been originally of about the same length as the best Kir-Shehrs. The 
sides were finished with a narrow selvage made of extra threads of 
red. The technical oddity of the piece was that the weft was thrown 
across, two threads at once, and then another row of knots put in be- 
fore it was carried back. The solidity afforded by this method was 
apparent. 

The modern Konieh manufacture is almost wholly of the heavy 
carpet order. The grade names of Oushak and Ghiordes are used 
and the products are practically the same as theirs. The Konieh 
moderns are noticeable, however, for one thing, the diversity of yarns 
used for the warp. These are all of wool and necessarily very stout ; 
in color they are everything, and, as if sufficient variety could not be 
secured otherwise, two colors are often found in one yarn. 

Among the heavy Asia Minor "whole carpets " there is probably 
none of more worth than the Konieh variety known as Tokmak. The 
name itself, though really taken from a town to the west of Konieh, 
is in its literal meaning descriptive. Tokmak is Turkish for compact. 
In its primary use it means "a mallet." The materials of the Tokmak 
are well chosen, its patterns of a good order, and in fineness and work- 
manship it excels, perhaps, even the best grades of Oushak. 

Kir-Shehr. — The rugs of Kir-Shehr, in the province of Angora, 
just over the Konieh border to the north of Lake Tcholli, lead all the 
Konieh fabrics in texture and color. They are renowned for brilli- 
ancy, and the excellence of the water in that section, for the solution 
of dyes, is proverbial throughout Turkey. The reds and greens, 
especially, in many of the older Kir-Shehrs are exemplary, and dyes 
for these colors seem to have the maximum of preservative value, 
since the red portions of the designs, and some of the greens and 
darker blues as well, protrude from the surface as if they had orig- 
inally been put in with a longer yarn, for the purpose of making a 

138 



TURKISH 

raised pattern. The foundation threads, which are of wool, are 
usually dyed in the color prevailing in the pile, like those of the Ber- 
gamo. 

In design the antiques are perhaps more elaborate than the old 
Koniehs, but the small moderns of the two manufactures are sold inter- 
changeably. Geometry seems to have been overcome in the older Kir- 
Shehrs. Industrious attempt at Persian elaboration is apparent. There 
is a patent effort at unity and integrity in the design, which, particularly 
in its central patterns, follows closely the Arabic forms. The bord- 
ers, too, are eloquent of a higher artistic aim than can be found in the 
Koniehs. There are fewer stripes than in most of the Persian rugs, 
and the main stripes carry a most pretentious form of ornamentation. 
Border medallions, which are seen in Persian carpets, and are plainly 
borrowed from Arabic forms, are found in Kir-Shehrs of old date. 
Rectangular border figures are relegated to the subordinate stripes. 

In the modern products ambition is not so manifest, but the skil- 
ful blending of colors is still noticeable. The pile is of good length, 
making the rugs thick and durable. They are meant for practi- 
cal use and are much to be desired. Liberal use is made of phe- 
nomenal shades of green, and brilliant harmonious effects are produced 
by them in conjunction with the reds already mentioned. Some of 
the small Kir-Shehr mats have several particolored tufts at each 
end, composed of all the yarns used in their piling, and formed by 
weaving these in clusters into the webs with which, supplemented by 
a fringe of the warp, the ends are finished. 

In rare examples these little tufts are made of human hair, and 
sometimes small devices are woven with hair upon the webbing. 

Kaba-Karaman. — Little need be said of these. They are sim- 
ply called " Kaba " by the Smyrna traders. The word means " coarse," 
and describes them accurately from every standpoint. They are made 
by nomads in the southern province, along the ranges of the Taurus 

139 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

chain, toward the Zeitoun district, and furnish a good index to the 
tribes which make them, whose fame for roughness, cruelty and quar- 
relsomeness has gone over all Asia Minor. The Karamanians are 
migrant Turkomans, and in their weaving preserve in rude form the 
patterns prevalent in the Caucasian countries. 

Most of the Kaba-Karamans which come to America — and they 
are a multitude — are small prayer rugs and scdjadcli. Their likeness 
to the Caucasian fabrics in design, heightened by the free use of bold 
patterns in white, enables salesmen to dispose of them for Derbend. 
Some of the better specimens go as Karabagh, and particularly good 
ones as Shirvan, and even Daghestan, to purchasers who are in a high 
degree credulous. Although carelessly made, they are stout, and 
useful for some purposes. 

Yuruks. — These plain shepherds, 1 who wander with their flocks 
over the southern and middle ranges of Anatolia, are blood kin to the 
Kazaks of the Caucasus and the Kirghiz, and the Turkomans of the 
Mosul districts ; in the fabrics they send to Smyrna the relationship 
is plain. The tribal name "Yuruk" means "mountaineer." It is 
the wild, harsh life of their mountains that they have woven into their 



'"These Yuruks (called by Doctor Chandler and most of our old travellers 'Turkomans') 
are a pastoral, thriving, simple-minded, primitively-mannered, kind-hearted people, hospitable as far 
as their means allow, and always ready to shelter and serve a traveller, be he Mussulman or Chris- 
tian. Though far more religious than the town-dwelling people, they are less bigoted and intolerant. 
Their migratory habits and their breathing the free air of the mountains during one half of the year, 
appear to give them the enjoyment and appreciation of freedom. Their women go unveiled even be- 
fore strangers ; they are very fond of their children, whether male or female, and generally have a 
good stock of them. ... At the approach of winter the Yuruks come down with their flocks 
and their herds to the warm, sheltered plains opening on the Propontis or the .^Egean, and at the 
approach of the burning hot summer they retire to their cool, shady mountains, where the melting 
snows leave sweet and abundant pasture. The most thriving men I saw this time over in Asia were 
among the Yuruks. Some of their aghas, or head men, possess immense flocks of sheep and fine 
herds of cattle ; and it was a fine sight to see them — as we did a little later at Hadji Haivat — descend- 
ing from Olympus day after day like a continuous stream. But for the Yuruks I do not know what 
the Turks would do for their mutton ! The heads of tribes lead quite.a patriarchal life — always under 
tents— and many of them reach a truly patriarchal age." — Charles C. MacFarlane: "Turkey and Its 
Destiny." 

140 



T URKISH 

rugs. Most of these are dark affairs, with the heavy, ashen brown 
hue prevailing, brightened by titanic patterns in wonderfully rich 
colors. The designs seem fairly to grow out from the grim ground- 
work of dark sheep's-wool. They are made up of simple figures, 
which the artistic limitations of the weavers have forced them to re- 
peat again and again. The corner triangles and patches at the side 
of the central fields not taken up by the main device are filled with 
stripe effects, composed frequently of the hook pattern found in the 
Caucasians, although the shape of it here differs somewhat from the 
Caucasian form. 

Kazil and sometimes brown wool are used for the warp, but the 
fierce-looking knotted braids with which the ends are adorned are of 
white or gray wool, sometimes of cotton. The broad web of the middle- 
Asia Turkomans sometimes appears here. The sides are selvaged, 
but over the selvage in a few rugs is an overcasting of colored yarn, 
which serves at once to fortify the edge, and make it more nearly 
equal to the piled part of the fabric in thickness. 

The Yuruk weavings have a peculiar softness, proof positive that 
they are made to serve the ends of personal comfort where that com- 
modity is scarce, and not those of adornment or display of skill. 
Some of them lack symmetry, but as a rule they lie evenly, and, being 
made in the sturdiest fashion, wear like iron. 

Anatolians. — Small mats are made throughout the Konieh dis- 
trict, and in fact all the middle and eastern part of the peninsula, and 
sold under the name of "Anatolians." They are seldom more than 
four feet in length and vary in respect of narrowness. Nothing 
could be more heterogeneous than are these yesteklik, both as to 
color and design. They embody every sort of device, curved and 
rectilinear. Those made in recognized communities of weavers fol- 
low closely the rugs of the locality, but many which come in the great 
consignments are merely individual conceits, the first thing that has 

141 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

come into the weaver's head. Their very oddity makes them attrac- 
tive. 

The only feature common to most of them is a soft, flocky pile. 
This is purely utilitarian, since originally their chief use was as pil- 
low covers. There are in most cases strips of cloth web at the ends 
to facilitate making them into pillows. Clinging to the backs of 
many of these mats will be found seeds and specks of clean straw, 
showing that they have already been used, and that the collectors, 
seeking for everything buyable in the way of native textiles, have 
stripped them from the pillows and sold them for export. 

The designs include everything, stripes and angular figures, Sar- 
acenic centre-pieces, heavy geometrical devices like those employed 
by the Yuruks, and even the neat patterns of the Caucasian fabrics. 
The latch-hook plays an important part, especially in the mats made 
by the mountaineers, who, it would seem, have brought it with them 
from the shores of the Caspian and the uplying country. It is of 
different form, however, more like that seen in Kurdish rugs of 
Mosul. Some of the older mats are really fine and highly prized by 
connoisseurs. Like the larger rugs, many of them have suffered from 
the use of chemical dyes, and pieces which, were their colors honest, 
would have considerable value, are ruined by the fading of their 
principal areas to dirty and unsightly stains. Poor coloring may often 
be detected by comparison of the ends of the pile with the part 
which is below the surface and has not been exposed to light and 
air. The under part, even in very old rugs, retains its original 
brightness. 

There are made all about Caesarea rugs of considerable size and 
enormous thickness, which in trade are called " big Anatolians." 
They have all the peculiarities of the large Kir-Shehrs, but the pile is 
much longer and thicker. In some specimens it is fully an inch and 
a quarter in length, and is packed upon the warp as closely as the 

142 



TURKISH 

most energetic beating with the batten can crowd it, and as the yarn 
is of the heaviest the fabrics are nothing less than cushions, upon 
which a body might fall heavily a hundred times a day without possi- 
bility of injury. There is more wool to the square inch in one of 
these rugs than in the very thickest of Oushak or Ghiordes carpets. 
Much of the material is poorly prepared. In some cases it is not 
thoroughly cleansed of the animal oil, and after the rug has been 
used for a time it flocks, like the wool on the back of a thick-coated 
sheep. 

The designs are mostly of an archaic, rectilinear order. The 
colors are brilliant and their areas harshly defined. There are no 
half-tones. The anilines are prevalent. If, however, interminable 
wear is all that is required, one need seek no farther than these " big 
Anatolians." 

In Caesarea a large general manufacture has sprung up, both of 
big carpets of the Oushak type, and copies of the Persian sedjadeh, 
in both silk and wool. The latter are known in trade as Csesarean 
Kirmans, Caesarean Sehnas, etc. None of these products bears any 
relation to the old, spontaneous industry of the locality. 

SMYRNA FABRICS 

I may repeat here that the Smyrna rugs of to-day are all made 
for market, and are as purely commercial creations as Axminster or 
Wilton. The paltry rates at which weavers can be employed more 
than overbalance the American tariff upon imported fabrics, and there 
remains the indisputable fact that Americans cannot, even with bet- 
ter facilities and the best of Oriental designs to work from, satisfac- 
torily imitate the Eastern products. 

The genuine antiques from this region are growing lamentably 
scarce, but at long intervals a new rug is found, made with all the old 
fineness and purity of design, and colored with the old-fashioned dyes 

143 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

— a very oasis in the desert. The manufacture of carpets of the Smyrna 
type is making its way eastward with great rapidity. It was a long 
stride when looms for the heavy grades were set up in Konieh, and 
now, since Caesarea became a factory, Csesarea and other towns, still 
farther east, have begun to contribute their quota. The great body of 
moderns in the Smyrna group, no matter where made, are alike in all 
points save comparative coarseness and some technical differences such 
as weight, solidity of texture, quality of wool in the pile, and the mate- 
rials used for warp and weft. The names by which they are known 
in the trade serve merely to define grades. The designs are anything 
and everything, European as well as Eastern, and the dyes, in most 
instances, largely chemical. 

The Smyrna fabrics are surely entitled to the name carpet, if 
size is the desideratum. They are made now to fit almost any floor. 
For a time the experiment was tried of making these great affairs in 
several sections and deftly joining them afterward. The process 
proved unsuccessful, as the pieces seldom matched sufficiently well to 
make the completed fabric seem a unit. 

Ghiordcs. — About fifty miles northeast of Smyrna lies the rug- 
making town of Ghiordes. You may see it written in nearly as many 
ways as there are stitches in its famous fabrics — Gordes, Giirdiz, 
Gierdi, Yoordis, Yurdi, Yordi, and many more. But by whatever 
name, it is to the native always to be revered ; not so much because 
in the popular belief, which cannot be shaken by archaeological 
doubts, it is the ancient Gordium, home of the Gordian knot, by sev- 
erance of which, in accordance with prophecy, world-compelling Alex- 
ander became master of all Asia, but because the old Ghiordes rues 
have there been woven, which to the Turk, and many people besides, 
are the acme of textile excellence. 

From the limitless field of design and the countless possibilities 
of color combination, the weavers of Ghiordes, in other centuries, 

144 



A Nomad Studio 



TURKISH 

wrought out a type which had universal recognition as their own ; a 
type to the chaste perfection of which the designers, whether of East 
or West, have not been able beneficially to add, and from which only 
laziness, haste or greed has since prompted any man to take aught 
away. This type found its greatest prevalence in the prayer carpets, 
but can still be seen in floor-coverings, though they have now grown 
rare.' In the famous collections of Europe the old Ghiordes bits are 
placed side by side with the most prized antiques from the Persian 
looms. 1 

It is an interesting middle ground which these most renowned 
of Anatolian fabrics occupy, in the matter of design. While eschew- 
ing the Persian realism and profusion in floral patterns, the Ghiordes 
weavers have attained equal mastery of synchromatic arrangement. 
From the deep mass of solid color, sometimes rich red, canary, or 
pale green, but most commonly blue, which forms the arched central 
field of the prayer rugs, there is the most delicate alternation of col- 
ors throughout the several borders, even to the outermost band. In 
the ground of the main or middle border stripe, or perhaps in its 
chief floral pattern, will be found recurring, in subdued but still dom- 
inant value, the central blue. In the inner guard stripe, next to the 
central field, the blue is almost unnoticeable, giving place to red or 
yellow, the alternating color. In the outer one it is stronger, though 
not sufficiently prominent to diminish the value of the blue in the 

1 The largest Ghiordes antique ever known" to have come to New York is eleven feet wide by 
fifteen feet long, and is now in the possession of Mr. George Gould. Some years ago a Smyrna 
dealer, observing that the old Ghiordes pieces were becoming scarce, bought every specimen obtain- 
able. Some of them were far gone with age, but he set expert weavers at work repairing them, weav- 
ing patches in the ragged places, and refinishing the battered sides and ends. The work occupied 
over two years, as he had collected, all told, more than 150 pieces. When at last he offered them for 
sale, fabulous prices were obtained. At present the factories in Tabriz and at 'other places through- 
out the East are producing these rugs, but few of the copies have the attractiveness of the old ones, 
probably because the dyes are adulterated with anilines. 

2 Fine examples of old Ghiordes have lately come to be used as mats in the framing of pictures. 
The body of the rug is cut out, and only the border section left to do service. The effect is striking, 
but to the lover of fine rugs the practice will at first seem little short of desecration. 

145 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

broad main stripe. Where the prevailing color is red or the pale 
yellow frequent in all Asia Minor prayer rugs (though most common 
in the Kulahs), the balance is just as skilfully maintained. To aid 
in this adjustment of color-balances the daintiest tints of other colors 
are used, pale Nile green and the paler yellow, which serve the light- 
ing-place of white, but leave softness instead of a glare. Where par- 
ticularly delicate color tone is required, cotton is sometimes used in 
place cf wool for the small white figures. 

The patterns used in the Ghiordes border ornament are singu- 
larly adapted to this skilful distribution of color. They are chiefly 
floral, and so insure softness, but the flower forms, instead of presenting 
the broad conventional surfaces customary in the Assyrian patterns, 
or the severe angular indented style of the Caucasians, consist of 
finely broken leaves and blossoms, which assist in the production of 
the most minute color areas. While not harshly geometrical, they 
are quasi-rectilinear and so drawn as to lend themselves to regular 
arrangement. There are in each spray one blossom and two leaves, 
two blossoms and one leaf, or three blossoms. These are arranged 
within an imaginary square, which, repeated many times, forms the 
main border stripe. One corner of the square is occupied by each 
leaf or blossom, the remaining corner by the base of the stem and a 
few tiny leaves which put out from it. The fine color balance 
between the leaves and flowers on each branch is distinctly noticeable 
in all the old examples. The border stripe is virtually made up of 
these squares, which are so arranged that the stems of the spray point 
alternately inward and outward. Thus, in many pieces, the succession 
of stems produces the effect of undulation, without resort to the con- 
ventional vine which is the foundation of the whole Persian system. 
The only pronounced trace of this is in the narrow tertiary stripes 
which separate the borders proper. These carry a central wave line, 
or thin ribbon, and can be found in the majority of Ghiordes fabrics. 

146 



TURKISH 

In some Ghiordes rugs the main border is made up of a pattern 
which at first glance suggests a comb. This, examination will show, 
is also a leaf form. There is sometimes substituted for the main 
border stripe, with its rich floral decoration, a series of narrow stripes, 
alternately very dark and very light — almost black and white. This 
feature, which is carried to an even greater extreme in the antique 
rugs of Kulah than in those of Ghiordes, lends a decided brilliancy of 
effect, but interferes somewhat with the fine color adjustment. 

In the spandrels over the arch of the prayer rugs there is a 
repetition of the pear patterns or some variation of the characteristic 
trifoliate border design, still arranged in rows, and usually in an 
emphatic shade of the alternating color. The entire oblong is 
topped by a horizontal panel in which the principal color is even 
more pronounced than in the border stripe. The patterns in this 
panel and in a second panel nearly always put in underneath the 
field, may be eccentric Anatolian floral forms, but more frequently 
appears some phase of the old symbolism, such, for example, as the 
swastika. 

The niche in the Ghiordes prayer rugs has a distinctive form. It 
is tall. The angles at the base of the arch are frequently broken ; 
the apex of the arch, instead of running to an acute point, is also 
broken very near the top, so that its angle is obtuse. In many speci- 
mens the tree of life pattern, almost omnipresent in prayer rugs, is 
without trunk, and consists merely of protruding floral branches, 
drawn after the manner of the flower designs in the borders and 
spandrels. 

A feature peculiar to some of the best of these prayer rugs is 
that the fringe on the upper end, instead of being the customary 
finishing of the ends of the warp, is a separate affair, usually of silk, 
sewn fast, and reaching down each side of the rug for the space of a 
foot or more. The weft is sometimes cotton, and the finishing of 

147 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

the sides often an extra selvage of silk in pale color and of the finest 
weaving. So much for the antique Ghiordes. It cannot be mis- 
taken, except for the product of the neighboring city of Kulah, and 
once seen at its best will scarcely be forgotten. 

As for the modern Ghiordes, it marks the maximum of change in 
Turkish rugs, as the Feraghan does in Persia ; but the Feraghan has 
been loyal to its antique design, while the Ghiordes has not. The 
modern fabric is of infinitely coarser texture and astounding color. 
The old vegetable tingents are little used save in the finer grades. 
Even when the dyes are vegetable products they are mordanted 
by chemical methods, and the old formulae for preparing and fixing 
them seem to have been lost. 

There is no special characteristic in the modern Ghiordes by 
which they can be distinguished from other Smyrna carpets, except 
that for the sake of economy a cotton thread is used, even in the 
best of them — Hamidiehs, Sultaniehs, Osmaniehs — for weft." 

The better grades are known by the greater number of knots 
contained in the square inch. The lowest have twenty and the 
highest about seventy-five. All that these big moderns retain from 
the old Ghiordes is the general border arrangement, and the small 
undulating stripe referred to in the description of the antiques. That 
is found, in some shape, in all the latter-day fabrics except the fan- 
taisie rugs. For the rest, the fine patterns so delicately wrought in 
the old prayer rugs are abandoned for great and garish ones in the 
new carpets. "Big" colors prevail. There is no limit to them. 
Harsh reds, greens, terra cottas are common, and all manner of figures 
are used to fill the vacant space. Frequently there is a gigantic 
medallion in the centre, in red, green, or some other heavy color. 

1 In the heavy whole carpets of Asia Minor the same grade names are used by several manu- 
facturers. A name therefore cannot indicate unerringly one and the same fabric wherever used, since 
the materials employed by the different makers vary in merit, and there are "shop" differences in the 
dyes and finishing. 

148 



TURKISH 

The remainder of the field is filled in with all sorts of disjunct 
figures, a reversion, unprejudiced critics would say, to the barbarian 
tendency found in Kazaks, Turkomans, and the rough products of 
Mosul and Southern Anatolia. The pile of the great carpets varies in 
length from an inch downward. The Ghiordes weaver of a century 
ago would have laughed at these as monstrosities ; to-day they are 
sold by the ship load. The big firms who make the farmaisli have 
in Ghiordes, as in other large factory towns, expert men whose busi- 
ness it is to establish the scale of the patterns. They weave small 
sections of rugs, which are given to the rank and file to work by. 

Kulah. — In former times Kulah produced rugs of much the 
same pattern and workmanship as those of Ghiordes, from which 
town it is less than fifty miles distant. So few and so fine were the 
points of difference that even connoisseurs often find it difficult to say 
positively of some of the rare examples now offered for sale in this 
country whether they be from the looms of one city or the other. 
Both have the same brightness, delicacy of pattern and fine though 
chaste display of color. In old Kulah prayer rugs red is oftener the 
prevailing color than in those of Ghiordes, and the golden brown 
color more frequent still — sufficiently so, in fact, to be almost char- 
acteristic. The niche or pointed arch, measuring from the base of 
the spandrel, is seldom so tall, and its sides are more apt to be ser- 
rated. The inner field of the rug is more frequently filled or partly 
filled with small figures than that of the Ghiordes, in which solid color 
is a rule. These figures are usually floral, of the Asia Minor char- 
acter — three-leaved, and with the flowers hanging down them — and 
are arranged in rows like the pear and shrub patterns in the field of 
Tzitzis and Kabistans, but without the separating lines or bars 
found between the rows in those rugs. 

Figures of the same sort are repeated transversely to form the 
main border of the Kulahs, in lieu of the large individual patterns 

149 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

common to the Ghiordes. The narrow alternating stripes (dark and 
light) referred to as appearing in the Ghiordes must really be consid- 
ered a Kulah mark, from the fact that in the old Kulahs, in- 
stead of being used chiefly as a substitute for a main stripe pattern, 
they are employed in great number, sometimes as many as seven, or 
eight, or even ten, inside and outside the main border stripe. Each 
of these narrow stripes carries a succession of small, separate devices 
in place of a running pattern. The narrow stripe with undulating 
pattern, referred to as a characteristic of all Ghiordes, antique and 
modern, is rarely found in pure Kulahs, and the peculiar arrangement 
of the top fringe of the Ghiordes prayer rugs is absent from the Ku- 
lahs, except in rare cases where it has been supplied at the dictation 
of individual caprice. 

The extensive manufacture of rugs for market has been carried 
on only for a short time in Kulah, but so rapidly has it increased that 
the town is to-day one of the most important rug-making places in 
Turkey. Certain of the makers here maintain with heroic fidelity the 
use of vegetable dyes, and strive to keep their products up to the old 
standard of merit, but for a time the general quality declined so sadly 
that government interference became necessary to insure its restor- 
ation. Oddly enough, much of the weaving is done by men. Car- 
pets of the better grade are made chiefly by the Christian population. 
They taught the art to the Turks, who speedily abandoned it and 
went into the raising of rug materials. The Mohammedans now 
weave the low-grade carpets. Of late years mohair has been used with 
an admixture of wool, for piling what are known as Kulah mohairs. 
These rugs look well when new, but instead of improving with age, like 
most Oriental fabrics, lose their gloss, and when the mohair becomes 
packed, as it does with comparatively brief use, unpleasantly resemble 
felt. In design the modern Kulahs have nothing characteristic. The old 
models have been abandoned, and like well nigh all the present day 

150 



TURKISH 

Smyrna fabrics they are made from designs furnished them by European 
dealers. The Kulah moderns, with woolen pile, run almost entirely to 
large sizes. With some few exceptions, they are inferior products ; 
often coarser in texture even than the Ghiordes barchanas. The 
mohairs are made in all dimensions, from the single door-mat up to 
the whole carpet. 

Demirdji. — Twenty-five years ago Demirdji, a town of twenty 
thousand, was unknown to the rug trade. Its present prosperity 
and fame are the outgrowth of misfortune. It is commonly 
said that the weavers from Ghiordes journeyed to Demirdji, set up 
looms and taught the natives to weave. This is not the fact. In 
1880, or thereabouts, Demirdji was partially destroyed by fire, and 
the majority of its population were left homeless, some helpless. In 
desperation some hundreds of them went to Ghiordes, where at that 
time the carpet industry was beginning to assume commercial propor- 
tions. They learned the trade, and after a short time returned home 
and taught it to their townsmen. Skilled dyers went there, and find- 
ing the water of a good solvent quality, opened shops. The best of 
wool is produced on the plateaus east of Demirdji, and to-day the 
carpets made there are accounted among the best in Turkey. They 
are more compact than the average Ghiordes, the yarn is rather 
better selected, and of double or sometimes of triple strand. The 
pile is clipped shorter than in the Ghiordes. 

The rug trade in this country seems of late to have set its face 
most resolutely against the Demirdji rugs, maintaining that they 
are practically one with the Ghiordes product, and believing that the 
Ghiordes rugs are substituted, while the Demirdji price, about 
twenty per cent, above that of Ghiordes, is maintained. But as all 
the motives of rug sellers are not altruistic, nor all their practices 
wholly ingenuous, the doom of Demirdji need not yet be considered 
as altogether sealed. The Demirdji quality known as Hindustanieh, 

151 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

is a finer and perhaps better finished carpet than any of the staple 
products of Oushak. It is very closely trimmed, but has a large 
number of knots to the inch, which makes it heavier and more 
durable than others which have a longer pile. 

Oushak. — Railroad connection with the Mediterranean seaboard 
has contributed to make Oushak one of the greatest rug-making 
towns in Asia Minor, or for that matter in the world. In the quantity 
of its exports, it easily outranks all other seats of rug manufacture. 
Growing to keep pace with the enormous demand for its products, 
Oushak now numbers its looms and its weavers by thousands. The 
population ten years ago was estimated at twenty-five thousand. To- 
day it has almost if not fully quadrupled, and the value of the exports 
amounts to more than two million dollars a year. Few if any small 
pieces are made there. The whole working force is applied to the 
production of great, deep-piled carpets, which are found in hotels, in 
the saloons of steamships and apartments of the kind, as well as in 
thousands of dwellings, all the world over. There are half a dozen 
varieties, but they are in no wise determined by color or design, as 
the work at Oushak is done largely from patterns furnished by Euro- 
peans, and the colors, instead of following an established local prefer- 
ence, vary with particular requirements in decoration or the changing 
fashions of the West. 

The Oushak carpets have a softness to the foot not to be antici- 
pated from their appearance. This results from the invariable use of 
wool for the foundation. In the qualities known as Yaprak and Kir- 
man the warp is usually dyed in strong colors — red, green, blue, terra 
cotta or maroon. The wool of the woof is the same grade as that of 
the pile. 

Some years ago a rug dealer in Smyrna, who has an extensive 
trade with the United States, started a steam dyeing establishment in 
Oushak, to color all the wools at wholesale with chemical dyes. 

152 



PLATE XV 



l'l.ATl XV. Sehna Khilim 

Property of Ike . \h 

1 h Sehna product is by far the finest of any known in the khilim stitch, 
and has all the appearance of completeness which marks the piled fabri 
Sehna. which, indeed, the khilims follow rather closely in design and color. 
The pattern is the close form of the Herati, for the centre, and Sehna has d< 
oped it to a greater measure of perfection than any other weaving district 
except Feraghan, where, as will be seen, by Plate XIX. it is used with almost 
equal perfection. In border, the fine khilims do not usually employ the Herati 
stripes which are found in nearly all the piled rugs. This really is a fine artistic 
touch, since the small vine and flower design here used is much more appro- 
priate in a fabric of such extreme lightness as the khilim. In the matter of 
weight, this piece itself is little more than a shawl, and the threads with which 
the pattern is woven are quite as fine as many of those used in the making of 
lace. It is the habit of the East to wash the khilims as one washes a garment, 
and even where the dyes are vegetable and thoroughly fast, this process and 
the subsequent drying in the sun makes very strong colors take on a soothing 
softness. Nothing could be more delicate than the rose-pink of this covering, 
which by the aid of the blue is converted in its general effect to something 
very like violet. 



TURKISH 

Fortunately for the native dyers, and probably for the entire industry, 
the undertaking met with no success. The water at Oushak is of 
such remarkable quality that much of the wool from other districts is 
brought there for washing, but of late much of the Oushak wool has 
been poorly washed. 

The several denominations of Oushak rugs differ principally in 
texture. The ordinary Oushak, generally called Kirman, has from 
twenty-five to fifty knots to the square inch, and the Gulistan, and 
Enile or Inely, from fifty to ninety. The Gulistans are finer, in many 
respects, than the Eniles. 

The Yapraks — the original Oushak carpets — can be singled out 
from the fact that they are coarsest of all, and ordinarily contain only 
two colors, red and blue, or red and green. The warp and weft are 
dyed in one of them, and the pattern, in the alternating color, is as 
plainly visible on the back as on the front of the carpet. The Kir- 
mans are softer than the other varieties. 

Carpets very like the best of those of Oushak are now made in 
Kutayah, whither master artisans were sent from Oushak to set up 
the looms and teach the people the required method of weaving. 
Kutayah does not, however, figure often as a trade name. The pro- 
ducts of its looms are sold under the Oushak or Ghiordes classifica- 
tions. Many of them are extremely good fabrics, following in the 
quality of foundations and some points of finish, both of ends and 
sides, the heavier of the Bergamo rugs. They are, of course, so 
much heavier than any Bergamo, and so altogether different in col- 
oring and design, that their small textile resemblance affords not the 
slightest aid to identification. They affect large central fields of 
plain color, blue or red, or some such faint fretted diaper as is found 
in the grounds of Hamadan and Samarkand. The medallions and 
rectangular corner ornaments, as well as the borders, are generally 
semi-geometrical in character and small in proportion to the carpet. 

153 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

Bergamo and Ladik. — Nowhere does the wealth of historic sug- 
gestion which lives in Oriental carpets assail the mind with more force 
than in the fabrics which, in comparatively small number, but until 
lately inversely good quality, come from the neighborhood of these 
two old towns, one lying to the north of Smyrna, the other farther 
to the east, on the main highway from the west coast to the 
Euphrates. 

Bergamo, as Pergamos, was a stronghold of Christianity in its 
earliest periods, and site of one of the seven churches mentioned in 
the Apocalypse. But centuries before that they were centres of civ- 
ilization. Pergamos, founded, according to tradition, by a son of 
Hercules, became after innumerable wars the home of royal magni- 
ficence. Its rulers discarded the barbarism of the strictly Oriental 
races, and espoused Hellenic art and learning. The Roman arms 
perpetuated its greatness. It was renowned in its time for libraries, 
altars, and sacred groves. It was the chief shrine of Asclepius, and 
all the culture of the East came to it for one purpose or another. 
The sculptures on its giant altar of Jupiter were famous throughout 
the world, and the excavations made there in recent years by German 
archaeologists have shed more light, it is said, upon the art and archi- 
tecture of Grecian antiquity than any others in the Orient. 

Ladik, a corruption of Laodicea, is one of several cities, scattered 
through the Orient, which bore the name. It is situated some dis- 
tance northwest of Konieh. This locality, too, retains relics of an- 
cient grandeur. Fragments of superb architecture are still found, and 
coins of the Roman emperors are frequently turned up from the soil 
under which its ruins lie buried. 

The towns have, of course, fallen victims to that long decadence 
which has made of all Asia Minor a great burial-ground of splendor, 
but their rugs have retained, with a tenacity that is comforting, some- 
thing of high artistic character. These have been almost the only 

154 



TURKISH 

districts within the range of Smyrniote influence which have not 
yielded outright to the blandishments of commerce and permitted 
themselves to become converted wholly into sweat shops. 

Their old fabrics have so many points in common that it is diffi- 
cult to define the points of variance. In both the combinations of 
color are superb. In no other fabrics made are there to be found 
finer displays of red, crimson, yellow and blue. In the Bergamo scd- 
jadeh the figures are notably bold, and large in proportion to the size 
of the fabric. This and their artistic elaboration distinguish them 
instantly from other Turkish carpets. There is more of the preten- 
tious unity of design which marks the high-class Persian fabrics, and 
the best examples have been mistaken, even by persons well versed, 
for the early Saracenic masterpieces of Cordova and Morocco. The 
design starts from a central point, and the figures and areas balance, 
both in respect of color and location, and rich effects are produced by 
gorgeous massing as well as by a profusion of small and graceful 
forms. The texture is a little coarser and the pile a little longer than 
in the ancient Ghiordes. 

In most of the points concerning which experts are critical the 
Ladiks are accounted the better fabrics of the two. They are glos- 
sier, and somewhat superior in material. They have more of bright- 
ness and life than the Bergamo, and are of heavier yarn and more 
closely woven. They show a liberal use of white and scarlet, in con- 
trast with the madder reds which prevail in the Bergamo. Ladik 
rugs resemble in some respects the antique models of Ghiordes, and 
even more those of Kulah, particularly the prayer rugs, in which red 
and yellow prevail as tonic colors. The Kulah small stripes, how- 
ever, are not often found in the Ladiks. 

The preservation of the fine old designs has been accomplished 
by almost slavish copying. It is not unusual to find a Ladik prayer 
rug which, though forty or fifty years old, gives textile proof that it 

155 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

was scrupulously copied from an older fabric. It must be confessed 
that a deterioration has of late been manifest. At first it was shown 
in the omission of the smaller details of the design, and a tendency 
to a loose texture. Since the railroad's invasion of this part of the 
Peninsula the quantity of the rugs shipped out has increased vastly, 
while the quality has in large measure declined. Bergamo and Ladik 
features, though in very crude form, are now found in coarse and 
inferior small pieces which are offered in large numbers under the 
name of Bergamo, but which in color and design are unspeakably 
remote from the genuine antique products. The designs in these 
new rugs are Turanian, nomadic, heterogeneous, and the color shock- 
ing. Whether any respectable number of these are actually made in 
the region of Ladik and Bergamo or not it is hard to say. They 
certainly are a sad mockery of the name. 

That the genuine products are still to be had, however, at ade- 
quate price, is beyond dispute. In a letter written from Eski-Shehr 
Mr. Denotovich says : 

" About two hours' travel by rail south of this place is a station 
called Sarain. Ladik is some hours' horseback ride from the railroad 
at that point. I visited the neighborhood some days ago, and found 
a fairly good number of na?nazlik, odjaklik and even sedjadeh, of the 
old quality and design, offered for sale in the bazaars. The weavers 
and merchants are fully alive to the superior quality of the rugs, and 
demand a good price for them. The dealers inform me that the 
making of that class of rugs is still carried on by the inhabitants to 
the westward of Sarain, in the foothills of the mountains which lie 
between Ladik and Bergamo." 

The rugs of both Bergamo and Ladik are in the smaller sizes. 
They run from three to six feet wide by four to eight feet long, and 
are inclined to be considerably wider in proportion to length than 
other Asia Minor rugs. The rich general color effect is heightened 

156 



TURKISH 

in both varieties by dyeing the foundation threads in the princi- 
pal color of the piled design. The weft is always colored, and, 
closely woven upon three or four outside threads of the warp, in the 
khilim stitch, forms a tinted selvage at the sides, in harmony with the 
general tone of the rug. Warp and weft are woven into a two- or 
three-inch red web at the ends, usually striped with yellow or blue. 
Beyond this the warp forms a small loose fringe, or sometimes a nar- 
row selvage like that of the old Koniehs, which are made nearby. 
In some of the older and finer examples the finishing of the ends is 
more elaborate, and even in the coarse and irregular modern substi- 
tutes, which retain no vestige of the artistic merit of the antiques, 
the web at the ends appears inwrought with its small device indica- 
tive of superstitious feeling. 

Ak-Hissar. — This name means the " white citadel." As ordinarily 
spoken it is Axar, with a decided emphasis on the final syllable. The 
town lies in the mountains, less than a hundred miles northward from 
Smyrna. It was here, about twelve years ago, that rugs were first 
manufactured in any quantity from mohair. The stubbornness of the 
Angora goat's-hair, which had been imported to the town in 1885, 
made spinning it a difficult task, but a workable yarn was finally ob- 
tained by combining it with wool. The output of Ak-Hissar consisted, 
until lately, almost wholly of these mohairs. They are of the same 
general quality as those made in Kulah, and subject to the same com- 
ment. The pile packs and loses softness after a little wear. Both 
warp and weft are of coarse wool. 

When the mohair rugs were first placed upon the market, and 
for some time thereafter, they commanded a higher price than almost 
any of the Smyrna carpets, but the quotations on them nowadays are 
extremely low. The little success achieved by the mohair fabrics has 
led the weavers of Ak-Hissar to work in wool yarns. They make car- 
pets very similar to those of Ghiordes and Oushak. 

157 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

Meles, or Carian. — In some of the seacoast towns to the south 
of Smyrna, and many of the scattered islands of the sea, rugs are 
made which bear the name Meles (probably because their primary 
market-place is Milassa, or Melesso), or Carian, from the ancient 
name of southwestern Asia Minor. They are also called Makri, from 
the Gulf of Makri, near which Melesso is situated. The name Makri 
has been applied to the general product of the coast districts of south- 
ern Asia Minor and Syria, and some of the fabrics found in these 
regions have the broad Turkman web at the ends, similar to that seen 
in the Bokharas, Afghans and Yuruks. As a rule the Meles rugs 
are small, and the texture is comparatively coarse. The old examples, 
now rare, are in rich but mellow color, abounding in a peculiar quality 
of red and a yellow such as marks some exceptional Ladik pieces. 
The colors in the moderns are largely aniline, and are almost offen- 
sive in their brilliancy and not harmoniously blended in the weaving. 
The red conspicuous in new Meles rugs is of a peculiar metallic quality 
bordering closely upon cerise, and yet retaining the solidity of a pure 
carmine. It generally appears in striking mass in the central field, 
but the smaller patterns in the border are so enlivened with it that 
the fabric can hardly be accused of inconsistency. The other colors, 
too, notably the yellows, light blues and greens, are of a commen- 
surate value. All are garish, but after the rugs have been in use for 
a time, and the colors have had opportunity to fade, some of them 
are really attractive. The designs lack coordination in their smaller 
elements ; they impress one as being jumbled. With more of unity 
the extravagant colors might seem less tawdry, but the mixture of 
small detached figures presents nothing to chain the attention, and 
so the entire character of the rug is imparted by the hues. The de- 
signs are heterogeneous, too ; this is particularly apparent in the bor- 
ders. In one rug the Caucasian latch-hook is prominent, while in the 
next the character most often repeated is the Persian pear. 

158 



TURKISH 

The Ghiordes knot is used ; the warp is of two- or three-strand 
wool, often colored at the ends in some cheap-looking shade of light 
blue, or perhaps a violent pink, and left to form a loose, unattractive 
fringe of considerable length. The weft is usually of cotton, and is 
worked around three or four outside threads of the warp, forming 
a compact selvage for the sides. 



*S9 



XI 
PERSIAN 

CANCELLING from consideration perhaps as many as half 
a dozen varieties of Caucasian and Asia Minor rugs, well 
nigh all of great refinement that remains in the Oriental 
carpets of the present day belongs to Persia. It is there that the 
Eastern carpet as an art product had its first home, and there, unless 
some sudden and potent saving force intervenes, will be its last. Syria, 
Arabia, and, in an original artistic sense, India, as producing coun- 
tries, have passed from the reckoning. Turkey and Turkestan are 
going. It must be laid to the credit of Persia that, despite her de- 
cadence as a state and the painful decline of nearly all her indus- 
tries, a strenuous effort is being made to uphold the quality of the 
carpets, in the face of demoralizing influences which have proved the 
undoing of the craft in other sections of the East. The custom 
of making truly fine carpets took root in Turkey, but only at some- 
what isolated points. The Greek culture, warring so vigorously 
against Orientalism, repelled the carpet. It was only where the Per- 
sian influence gained indisputable foothold that the art survived in 
aught resembling elegance, and its practitioners harked back always 
to Persia as an exemplar. The native artistic spirit of Persia is longer- 
lived, as it is more spontaneous, but it is next to impossible to escape 

1 60 



PLATE XVI 



■ 



Plate XVI. Herez Prayer K< 

Property of the Author 

This is in the strong, heavy drawing almost universal in the Herez fabrics. 
The rug is new, but the design is not of modern making. In a collection of 
old pieces I have seen one or two antiques that were quite similar in figuration, 
although wrought with a blue ground. The colors here are the same as are 
found in the Herez and Gorevan large carpets, although there they appear in 
huge medallions. At first glance, the prayer-arch formation is scarcely ap- 
parent, but when seen is found to be maintained throughout the whole length 
of the rug, with repeated arches in heavy blue lines, and the tree feature run- 
ning through the middle. The sides of the pattern are well balanced, but the 
devices, mostly floral, are very odd in character. In the border the Chinese 
cloud-band is repeated, a mark suggestive of the great prevalence of Mongol 
blood in the population of Azerbijan. 



PERSIAN 

the conclusion that these are its latter days. The mystery of Per- 
sia, the romance of it, are being dissipated at last. The hand of the 
West, or to be more literal, the North, is upon it. It and its arts 
are going the way of all the rest of the Orient, and though some 
souls may cling to tradition, and strain their eyes to catch " the 
light's last glimmer," the inevitable has happened. Persia has become 
a business field. Its artisans are no longer fancy free, and even 
when left to their own devices are disappointing. Its idealism, its in- 
vention, its imagination, and even its manual deftness have in great 
measure departed. Commerce skurries along, like a man with a sack, 
in the path where splendor has gone by, picking up fragments. He 
mounts a box, now and then, to auction to the rest of the world the 
treasures and the gewgaws he has found. 

Even so, the finest rugs come to-day, as they always have, out of 
Persia, but the fabrics which were once artistic marvels, as well as 
models, are now made, and too often poorly made, for market. It is 
not too much to say, however, that the standard in carpets is being 
upheld more sturdily than anything else that the country produces. 
This is due in part to the fact that until recently the rug-producing 
districts of Persia have been a terra incognita to the Western buyers, 
and the difficulties of inland travel are apt to remain an obstacle for 
some time to come. Even the Constantinople dealers have found it 
more to their comfort and about as much to their profit, to carry on 
their dealings with the Persian weavers from the easy distance of 
Stamboul, through agents resident in Persia. They have foregone 
thus all accurate knowledge of the localities where the various Persian 
fabrics are produced, and have contented themselves with nomen- 
clature which is erroneous chiefly because it is long out of date. 
America, which has taken its knowledge at second, third or fourth 
hand from them, has had slender notion of the Persian classifications. 

But if knowledge has gone out in scant measure, the industrial 

161 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

evils of the West have come into Persia in full volume, and the 
weavers have been only too prone to welcome them. Now — rather 
late in the day to be sure, but still in time to prove of infinite service 
— the authoritative forces of the Empire have bestirred themselves to 
check the spread of bad color and sham workmanship. And what- 
ever criticism may be passed on the Persian polity in other respects, 
it must be credited with good intent in this. In the chapter on Dyers 
and Dyes I have cited the law lately issued by the Shah, prohibiting 
the importation of aniline colors. That it was the outcome of Euro- 
pean suggestion need not detract from the wisdom of His Majesty in 
perceiving its ultimate worth to his Empire, and that he is sincere in 
his intention to enforce it has had ample proof. During my brief 
stay in the city of Tabriz there were destroyed, at public burning in 
the caravanserai of the custom house, over four thousand pounds of 
aniline dye, sufficient, had it not been intercepted by the officials, to have 
spoiled many a batman 1 of honest wool. The time was more than 
ripe for a positive reiteration of the royal disapproval of anilines, for 
a cursory journey through the bazaars of any Persian town shows the 
chemical dyes largely in preponderance, and it is difficult, and in 
many places impossible, to find embroideries or fabrics of any sort 
which contain only the old-fashioned colors. 

The carpet interests at Tabriz have been persistent in their con- 
tention for good dyes, since the only ground for criticism adverse to 
the Tabriz products was that the colors were not fast. The effort 
to maintain a high standard of excellence in the output of the Tabriz 
looms has been continuous, and the results good in the main, but it 
seems, contemplating all the conditions, to have been rightly observed, 
in an earlier chapter of this volume, that heretofore the real con- 
servative force has been among the less polished tribes. Probably the 
most trustworthy Persian rugs, "by and large," to be had in the 

1 About ten pounds. 

162 



PERSIAN 

American market to-day are those made in remote parts of Eastern, 
Western and Southern Persia. It is in these, chiefly, that one finds 
the admirable characteristics both of color and weaving, which once 
distinguished the products of the middle district as well. This is 
assuming that we are speaking of the modern fabrics, and not of the 
half-worn but still beautiful creations of other days. It is true that 
European designers are maintained by the rug manufacturers at 
Sultanabad, and that designs made up of Oriental elements but with 
novel color combinations are sent from America to Tabriz to be 
wrought, as they are to India and Turkey, but Persian designers are 
still at work in the bazaars of Tabriz, and the dwellers in the moun- 
tains are weaving still the old designs, to some of which reference has 
been made in the chapter on Design. 

The change of boundaries which Persia has gradually undergone 
has stripped from her some large and important rug-making districts, 
but the carpets from such parts, with some few exceptions, are lack- 
ing in what is recognized as distinctive Persian character. All the 
fabrics illustrative of Persian style and method are still made in pro- 
vinces which remain under dominion of the Shah, and now and then 
in them is found a gleam of the old glory. 

A stout profession of faith in the abiding capabilities of the Per- 
sian weaver is made by Mr. Sidney A. T. Churchill, for many years 
secretary of the British Legation at Teheran. He says, summing up 
his review of the carpet industry of Persia : 

" When the difficulties of the weaver are considered ; when one 
remembers the very little remuneration the weavers receive for their 
labor ; when one reflects that they are utterly uneducated, living in 
squalor — more often in abject misery, fighting for bare existence — in 
a manner the most remote from inducing to art combination and high 
tone in color harmony, with scarcely any encouragement beyond 
what comes from earning a miserable means of existence ; when to 

163 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

these troubles one adds the seizing of labor at one fell swoop by those 
in authority, visitation of epidemics, carrying off the weaver and bread- 
winner of a family or retarding her work, and the embarrassments of 
maternity, the wonder is, not that the carpet industry of the present 
day in Persia should have degenerated, but that under such misfor- 
tunes it should even exist. 

"Nevertheless, I am convinced that with sufficient inducement 
and encouragement the Persian weaver of to-day could be got to equal 
the best efforts of his predecessors, if not to excel them." 

Whether his sanguine view of the possibilities is warranted or 
not, there is abundant proof that in his description of the drawbacks 
which beset the weaver Mr. Churchill was well within the facts, and 
the conditions have, if anything, grown more severe in the five years 
that have passed since his departure from Persia. Journeying down 
from Julfa, the customs port on the Aras river, where the Russian 
and Persian borders meet, the story of poverty and depression is to 
be read all too plainly. Nothing is in plenty, save tea and vermin. 
These are the staples at every village khan and roadside caravan- 
serai. In one or two towns I saw, through open gateways in the mud 
walls, a small loom or two, with rugs in process of making. The 
designs were pleasing, partaking in a measure of the characteristics 
of both Persia as now recognized and the Caucasian country which 
long ago passed from Persian control. This commingling of patterns 
made them resemble to some extent the weavings of Shiraz, but the 
colors, it was clear at a glance, left much to be desired. As we passed 
along the road which is the main highway between Russia and the 
Shah's domain, the entire country was in a state of excitement over 
the expected advent of the ruler, who was then on his way out from 
Teheran to seek treatment at the health resorts of Europe. Plans 
had been made for his reception all along the route, and carpets, new 
and indisputably bright, had been hung up to cover some part of the 

164 



PERSIAN 

gray walls, the dreary monotone of mud. But for all the gaiety of 
the fabrics, and the laudable purpose they served, it took only half an 
eye to see that the dyes were aniline, of a sort to make the author of 
the prohibitive law shudder, had he vouchsafed them any critical atten- 
tion. 

In the mountain districts south, east and west of Tabriz, how- 
ever, and throughout the uplands along the Turkish border, there are 
some fast dyes and capital workmanship, and it is noteworthy that save 
for some of the personally conducted carpets turned out from the 
looms of Tabriz, the weavings of the tribeswomen enjoy the greatest 
favor of any of the fabrics of Persia. The reason is plain. They 
are done at leisure, without any spur to haste, and altogether, much in 
the old fashion. The substitution of Turkoman elements, in 
many of the Persian loom products, for the old Persian designs, is 
easily understood, when it is remembered that the Persian of to-day 
is a transplanted Turk, that the language used over the greater part 
of the empire is a peculiar form of Turkish, and that the pure 
Persian, the Iranian, is a rara avis in the land whose name he wears. 

In northern Persia, at least, the best carpets of tribal manu- 
facture are woven by the Kurds, who bring them to market at Tabriz, 
in considerable quantities. They ask rousing prices for the goods 
upon arrival, but are kept upon tenter-hooks by the dealers until, 
weary of the atmosphere of the crowded city, after a fortnight of 
bootless waiting they dispose of their load for what it will readily 
bring, and go back to their tents in the mountains and their endless 
feuds. 

But the low prices at which the carpets are got by the Persian or 
Armenian merchant do not maintain in his dealing with his customer, 
for with the advent of a prospective buyer from the West the figures 
are raised, and kept up until he either must purchase at about the 
price demanded in Constantinople, or go home empty-handed. It is a 

165 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

familiar saying in the East that it takes two Jews to beat one Armen- 
ian, and six Armenians to beat one Persian. 

It is worthy of remark that throughout Persia the medallion idea 
is taking the place of the old diaper patterns. Even in such tcrehs 
as the Herati, the Djushaghan and even the minute all-over designs 
of Sehna, the medallion has been introduced, in one form or another. 
There are medallion centres, with the ground about them filled with 
the old device, but gradually the space covered in that way is being 
diminished, and solid grounds substituted, for the sole purpose, appar- 
ently, of saving time and labor. Fortunately there are a few designs, 
such as the Shah Abbas and the Mina Khani, which do not lend 
themselves readily to that sort of treatment. 

AZERBIJAN FABRICS 

Important as the part has been which this northernmost province 
has played in all the history of Persia, ancient and modern, and for 
that matter in the history of nations which preceded Persia, little has 
been heard of it as a carpet-producing field until recently. From its 
geographical position Azerbijan has been a battle-ground of the 
peoples on either side of it, and since fighting was suspended has 
served as chief point of contact between Persia and the Northern and 
Western civilization. Its population, while for the most part Turk- 
ish, is diversified by strong representation of other races. The pro- 
vince is a part of ancient Armenia, and relics of Armenian domination 
are many. In the eastern section, and particularly in Tabriz, the 
Mussulmans are Shiahs of the most fanatical type, and in one or two 
instances, when the matter has come to a test in temporal affairs, the 
influence of the mollahs has outweighed that of the Shah and 
his ministers. Around Urumieh, in the west, are Sunni Mo- 
hammedans, Chaldeans, Armenians and Kurds of a rough and 
lawless type. It is no uncommon thing, in the bazaars of Tabriz, 
during the month of Muharem, to come upon a religious gathering at 

166 



PERSIAN 

noonday. Fifty or perhaps a hundred Persian merchants sit 
grouped about upon their outspread carpets, or perhaps upon the 
bales of goods, their silken robes wrapped around them and their 
huge lamb's-wool caps set decorously at a backward angle, listening 
to the voluble harangue of a mollah, who, perched on an improvised 
pedestal above them, lectures on the Prophet's life, and more espe- 
cially on the martyrdom of the Holy Family, loyalty to whom is the 
vital matter of the Shiah faith. 

The making of carpets in Azerbijan is as old as the province, but 
it was not until the vast trade sprang up in Tabriz that the Azerbijan 
fabrics were known as such. All the industry here has practically 
been developed since 1890. Prior to that Hamadan was the market- 
place for the carpets of all that part of Persia, and thence it arose 
that the rugs of Azerbijan were classified as Hamadan products. 
Even the Kurd weavings found their market in Hamadan. The 
bales were made up there, and the whole output of the region, in 
effect, shipped from there by long camel trains to Trebizond, and so 
to the West. Fifteen years ago one or two New York buyers made 
their way to Tabriz, despite all obstacles, in the hope of securing 
fabulous bargains in all sorts and quantities of rugs. They found 
nothing at all. 

Some years later, more for convenience in the conduct of money 
transactions than anything else, the trade of the districts to the south 
and east began to go to Tabriz, and the carpet industry took on new 
life there. To-day the output of the province is very large, not alone 
the rugs made in the villages, but the thoroughgoing fabrics of 
Tabriz itself, which, it must be confessed, are largely the result of 
European stimulation. There is all possible diversity in the carpets 
of Azerbijan. Among them are found the crudest of hill products, as 
well as the ornate fabrics made by boy weavers, under the supervision 
of the most skilful loom masters. And in both classes ^the work. 

167 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

done in this hitherto unvaunted region is certainly equal, if not 
superior, to any carpet-making known in Persia at the present time. 

Tabriz. — The type of carpet which has come to be known as 
representative of Tabriz bears the name of Kermanshah, generally, 
in Western markets. This has given rise to an erroneous belief that 
the carpets from which the Tabriz variety has been developed were 
the product of the old outpost town of Kermanshah in the mountains 
of Ardelan, the province which lies immediately to the south of Azer- 
bijan, and is included in the vaguely defined territory known as Kur- 
distan. The model on which the Tabriz rugs were really designed 
is the ornamental and richly colored fabric of Kirman in southern 
Persia, a region which has a larger proportion of pure Persian popu- 
lation than any other in the realm, and which by reason of its re- 
moteness from the tracks of travel has kept its pristine character to a 
considerable degree. A certain part of the district bears the name 
Kirmanshahan or Kirmanshah, and thence the confusion arose. 

The Tabriz rugs of this order have also taken on some medal- 
lion features of the northern weavings, a characteristic which marks 
the so-called Sarakhs, made by the Turkoman settlers around Bijar 
in the Gehrous district, and in certain parts of the country around 
Hamadan. Upon this as a foundation idea has been wrought all the 
floral richness in which the old Persian artists were so fertile. The 
result is a carpet which for ornamental quality, opulence of color and 
fineness of texture has fairly outdone the present product, at least, of 
Kirman itself. It is not easy to believe that any modern fabric con- 
structed for practical use, of like material and in like method, has 
surpassed or is likely to surpass the carpets of Tabriz in craftsmanship. 
They are as nearly perfect as they can be made by scrupulous care in 
the selection of the yarn, loyal adherence to textile traditions which are 
accounted equivalent to gospel, mastery of color combination, elabor- 
ate taste and versatility in design, united to ability and thoroughness 

1 68 



PLATE XVII 












Plate XVII. Old Persian Silk Pi 

»i the Marqiiand Colin : 

Singularly enough, this rug is identical in design with that which occupied 
this same place in the earlier editions of this book, save fur small differences in 
the floral array and coloring, which two centuries' difference in their ages would 
quite justify. The other — and younger — rug was made in Shiraz, as the parti- 
colored over-casting, the figured webs and the tassels at the corners told plainly. 
Whence this far older fabric comes it is quite impossible to say, since the fin- 
ishings have all been worn away. The similarity in design would, as the re 
is aware, not be conclusive. But it is plain, since this piece is so very much 
older than the other, that it was parent to the other. Whether this rug itself 
was the first woven in this design, or is itself a copy, is a thing no man can 
know. " At any rate the god whom the first designer worshipped must have 
been a generous deity, for throughout it tells a story of plenty ami gladi 
The idea of actual growth and continued blessing is especially emphasized by 
the jardiniere, which is the central feature of the design, and from which spring 
in great prodigality practically all the flowers that Persia knows. Th< 
tainly no floral form to be found in any Iranian carpet design, old or new. that 
does not smile at us from this rug. The rose, the hare-bell, the henna, the 
poppy and all the rest, even down to the little blue forget-me-not. all 
crowded as closely as the weaver could crowd them and keep the balance of 
the design, and that he has done perfectly." 



PERSIAN 

in the art of weaving. And yet, the true Persian loves better the 
mellow richness of the old Feraghan or Djushaghan, the fine-wrought 
harmonies of Sehna, or even the flowery profusions which still bear 
the names of Teheran and Ispahan. 

The reason for his preference is plain. It is atmospheric. There 
is little of spontaneity in the Tabriz carpets. They are brilliant, 
showy, pictorial, beautiful ; but they are suggestive of fresco. To 
the Iranian they sniff of lacquer. They are framed panels, 
splendid, to be sure, but formal. To say that they are not Oriental 
is a great contradiction, truly, and one that some persons will deny, 
but it is nevertheless true that although representing something 
nearly akin to perfection in every process by which the East produces 
its textiles, the majority of Tabriz fabrics are less Eastern than many 
of the rude nomad rugs. 

The type of Tabriz is this: A central field, the color of ivory yel- 
lowed by age; clear and fine against it a superbly drawn, waving 
band of ruby red, prisoning in the corner spaces, rich, perfectly tinted 
blooms of the lotus, in pink upon a fawn ground, and other flowers of 
many colors, and shapely leaves, spreading into the shoulders of the 
corner areas, carried on exquisite stalks and vines of vernal green. 
In the middle of the broad field of ivory a medallion, traced in un- 
dulating curves of deep heliotrope. Growing out of this at either 
end, ornate pendants, heart-shaped, representations of the great lamps 
which hang in the mosques. All this shapely ornament filled with 
flowers and green leaves, upon an old rose ground, and wrought to- 
gether with arabesques of bronze. The main border stripes ground- 
ed in deep Persian red or bright blue, with splendid floral devices, 
and all the intervening spaces overlaid with faint, shadow tracery of 
graceful leaf forms, relieved at brief intervals with other flowers. 
Tiny floral patterns in the borders, in deep dull red and green, upon 
bands of misty blue. 

169 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

It sounds very like a catalogue, but it is Tabriz. And this bril- 
liant panel, so finely toned and shaded in difficult colors, takes on an 
added finish and lustre from the masterly weaving. The fineness of 
the knots which, tied one by one, have grown into such a creation, is 
incredible when it is remembered that the Turkish system is used. 
Into a square inch of this space, oftentimes, as many as three or four 
hundred knots are tied. Hardness, perfect compactness, these are 
the final desiderata of the Tabriz rug. In this they follow the 
Kirman. When carpet manufacture first began to take on im- 
portance in Tabriz, Kirman weavers were brought to oversee it, and 
their products, made on the Kirman designs, set the pattern for others, 
who speedily took hold of the work. The designs gained popularity 
at once, but the Azerbijan weavers, whose training had been wholly 
in the Turkish school, persisted in the use of what has been termed 
the Ghiordes knot. At first the weaving was done in houses, after 
the primitive custom, and the carpets delivered to the merchants upon 
completion. The immediate favor which they found, from the fact 
that they took the place of the then scarce fabrics of Kirman, led to 
the establishment of factories, with greater or smaller numbers of 
looms, and the general installment of the Kirman manner of manu- 
facture. In Kirman, as will be shown elsewhere, the best weaving 
had been done, time out of mind, by boys, under the direction of a 
loom master. This became the system in Tabriz, and every year sees 
addition to the number and capacity of these establishments. The 
carpet industry seems to grow in volume as the city's other arts and 
its general prosperity decline. Even now many rugs are made in the 
houses, on private speculation, but the tendency is altogether toward 
centralization, and some of the factories have as many as two hun- 
dred and fifty looms in operation. 

Lads of seven or eight years sit, half a dozen or more in a row, 
before giant frames, tying in the knots with a swiftness and accu- 

170 



PERSIAN 

racy which are nothing short of phenomenal. The eye of the unini- 
tiated will strive in vain to follow the magical twistings of those small 
fingers. For the double purpose of drawing the yarns through from 
the back and cutting them when once the knot is made fast, the 
small weavers are equipped with a knife, the blade of which is beaten 
into a hook at the point, something after the fashion of a crochet- 
needle. It serves them in lieu of several extra fingers, and they man- 
age it as expertly as they do their own small digits. In no land have 
I seen a more intelligent lot of boys than the solemn, black-eyed 
midgets who with big, black rimless wool caps on the backs of their 
close-shaven polls, sit like old men and weave the superb color panels 
of Tabriz. 

In the factor}' of Mr. Hildebrand F. Stevens, whose guest I had 
the good fortune to be, there was being woven, at the time of my 
visit to the Azerbijan capital, a copy of the renowned mosque carpet 
of Ardebil (Plate XXII), now among the treasures of the South Ken- 
sington Museum. This famous original is perhaps without a peer in 
the world ; a masterpiece of color, in the most intricate of old Persian 
designs. And the master of the loom on which the reproduction was 
being wrought was a lad of twelve years. Little, pale-faced, bowed 
with his burden of responsibility, he spent the long summer days 
walking up and down behind the eight or nine youngsters, some 
smaller than himself, who in that dim and dusty place were tying in 
the wondrous flower traceries over which the greatest Persian 
designer, some four hundred years ago, toiled in the palace at 
Kashan. I scarcely hope to see the American boy of twelve, with- 
out a day's schooling or an A, B, C to his name, who can carry on his 
small shoulders a load like that, or keep that maze of colors in his 
head. 

In the particular sort of Tabriz carpets of which we have spok- 
en, it is rarely that figures of birds, animals or human beings are 

171 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

used. In this the Tabriz designs have departed from the Kirman 
custom, but other designs are employed which follow the model of 
the Saruks, the fine fabrics made in Feraghan. In such pieces, 
which affect a more spontaneous floral treatment, the birds and other 
forms will be found. In fact, the manufacture in Tabriz, at the pres- 
ent time, is coming to include all the old and fine designs. Many 
carpets are being made on the designs of the kalin kiars, or printed 
panels, sold in such quantities in Ispahan, and used so widely over 
Persia for hangings both on walls and ceilings. Old Asia Minor 
rugs are also copied, and the weavers have lately gone so far as to 
take the designs of Valenciennes and other European laces, which 
were borrowed from Persia centuries ago by the makers of fabrics 
in Italy, France and Spain. 

A favorite device for borders in Tabriz rugs is a succession of 
small medallions containing inscriptions in the Persian characters. 
It is common to say that these writings in the "cartouches" are 
passages from the Koran, but it is seldom the fact. They are more 
frequently verses from the Persian poets. 

The greatest drawback, at present, to the success of the Tabriz 
fabrics is a suspicion of looseness in some of the dyes, notably the 
blue. I made this matter the subject of some inquiry and observa- 
tion, and though the criticism on the durability of the colors seems 
overdone it is plain that Mr. Benjamin, former United States 
minister to Persia, spoke wittingly when in a passage elsewhere cited, 
he bewailed the lost art of making Persian blue. The dyers in the 
great Persian rug centres frankly admit their inability to make the 
old-time colors. 

In Tabriz they lay the blame, and with some appearance of rea- 
son, to the water, which though brought from the outlying districts 
gathers a large amount of impurity in its flow, and in Tabriz is dirty 
as well as unhealthy. The floating particles in the water take the 

172 



PERSIAN 

color and are deposited as dust upon the wool. This is, in part cer- 
tainly, the cause of the obstinate blue shadows which are sometimes 
to be seen tingeing the white, ivory and yellow areas." It is found, 
however, that washing the rug in cold water, sometimes for three or 
four days, cleanses it of this dye-dust, and leaves it clear and bright. 
So far as I was able to learn, the dyes now used in Tabriz, for carpet 
purposes, are vegetable. One cogent reason for this has been given. 
That they will run under the application of water is vehemently 
denied, but that they will show the tenacity of the ancient colors, un- 
der exposure to the sun, is not, I think, to be looked for yet. 

The warp of the Tabriz carpets is cotton, and in a few of the 
finer wool pieces silk is used. Formerly it was customary to dye the 
weft, usually with the dominant color in the carpet, and to weave with 
it a narrow web at the ends. This has been abandoned and the ends 
are now finished in white after the manner of most Persian fabrics. 
In fineness the Tabriz work varies between ten by ten and 
twenty by twenty knots. The average carpet has about thirteen by 
thirteen, or one hundred and sixty-nine knots to the square inch. 
The surface is trimmed close and industrious beating with steel combs 
makes the fabrics very compact. There is a peculiar arrangement of 
warp in these carpets, one set of threads lying clear forward of the 
other, so that when the knot is tied, albeit the Turkish method is 
used, every ridge visible on the back indicates a row of knots, unlike 
the more loosely-woven Turkish fabrics, in which two rows are visible 
on the back for every actual row of knots. For greater solidity, also, 
a heavy cotton cord, of the same weight as that used in the warp, is 
sometimes run straight across between the forward and rear warp- 

1 "Among the real, good old Persian carpets there are very few patterns, though coloring and 
borders vary considerably. A good carpet, if new, is always stiff; the ends, when doubled, should 
meet evenly. There must be no creases nor any signs on the wrong side of darning or ' fine drawing ' 
having been resorted to for taking out creases, and there must be no blue in the white cotton fringe at 
the ends. Carpets with much white are prized, as the white becomes primrose, a color which wears 
well." — Mrs. Bishop: " Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan." 

173 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

threads, and between the rows of knots. The weft itself, a lighter 
affair, takes in the alternate threads of warp front and back, in the 
regular way. This filling is a trick the Tabriz weavers have learned 
from their neighbors of Kurdistan. 

There are other imitations of the Kirman rugs made in late 
years, notable among them those woven at Herek-keui, in Turkey,' 
near Ismid, on the Sea of Marmora. The industry there is the fruit 
of Imperial care for the people of Turkey. Silk is plentiful in the 
neighborhood and wool easily obtained. So great, indeed, is the 
plentitude of silk that even in the wool rugs of Herek-keui the central 
panels are often woven of it. The Sultan, like the Tabrizlis, brought 
Kirman weavers to instruct his subjects, and they found apt pupils. 
The work done here is chiefly the copying of old Persian or Ghiordes 
pieces, and the reversed direction of the stitches in many of the pro- 
ducts shows the skilled rug handler that the weavers, using the back 
of the original for their model, have worked the new rug upside 
down. The field of Herek-keui is one of general imitation, and the 
so-called Teheran and Ispahan designs appear, though not in such 
plenty as those of Kirman and Ghiordes. In several towns scattered 
throughout Anatolia similar enterprises have been begun, since the 
success of the Tabriz experiment has been made manifest. 

1 Charles C. MacFarlane mentions this place in his book, " Turkey and Its Destiny," published 
in 1850. Writing of the Catholic Armenian Filatura di Seta, a silk handling concern at Broussa on the 
slope of Mount Olympus, he says : " About a hundred and fifty women and girls were employed here 
in winding off silk from the cocoons. They were all either Armenians or Greeks. Turkish females 
cannot and will not be thus employed. They will rather do nothing and starve — and this was what too 
many of them were doing at Broussa, even at this season of the year. The Greek ladies were reported 
to be by far the quicker and cleverer, and the Armenians the more quiet and orderly. They could earn 
from nine pence to eleven pence a day; and this was almost wealth, for the necessaries of life were amaz- 
ingly cheap even at this short distance from the capital. An exemplary order and cleanness reigned 
throughout the establishment, which was under the direction of two intelligent, well-informed Italians. 
The silk they produced was very superior to the old Broussa's; but it was all sent to the Sultan's own 
manufactory at Herek-keui, on the Gulf of Nicomedia, and there either wasted or worked up at a ruin- 
ous expense, or left to accumulate in dirty, damp magazines. The wheels of this system ran somewhat 
off the trams; and before we left Turkey this Filatura was shut up, and the hundred and fifty females 
were sent back to their primal state of idleness and poverty." 

174 



PERSIAN 

HEREZ FABRICS 

The carpets of Herez, which for reasons already explained were 
for a long time classed as a coarse grade of Hamadan fabrics, have 
triumphed by sheer merit over the lack of favor which such an intro- 
duction would naturally invoke. It has, in fact, been customary to 
class the weavings of all the villages in the Herez neighborhood as 
belonging to the Hamadan districts, not alone those which were 
plainly enough superior to the Hamadan proper but those held of 
less worth. It was very difficult to see clearly how the Herez pieces 
and the extraordinarily fine, well-woven medallion carpets known as 
Serapi and Gorevan could come from the same looms or vicinity as 
the Hamadans, most of which can be distinguished anywhere by their 
fretted grounds and their broad outside bands of what is made to 
look like camel's-hair. A very brief inquiry into the matter, near at 
hand, made the error plain. 

The Herez rug district, so called, lies in Azerbijan, a little jour- 
ney to the eastward of Tabriz, on the road which leads by Ardebil to 
Astara, the Russian outpost, and other ports on the Caspian sea. It 
is wholly dissociate from Hamadan and all its works, for between the 
two lies a long stretch of Kurdish country, where rugs of an alto- 
gether different sort are made. Its relation with Tabriz is scarcely 
greater, although it has taken some notions from the Tabrizli weavers 
and the product of the district, perforce, goes to the capital to 
be sold. 

The story of the Herez weaving industry is interesting, and the 
different localities are so related to one another in it that it is hard to 
make the customary division, but as now produced, the rugs of the 
district may be set down as Herez proper, Gorevan, Serapi and Bakh- 
shis. It will be necessary to begin with the inferior variety. 

Bakhshis. — The first day's stage on the route eastward from 
Tabriz brings the traveler to the mud-walled village of Bakhshis. 

175 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

The name of this settlement, where the weaving is quite in evidence 
as an occupation, has strangely enough never become prominent 
among the rug-sellers of America, though its rugs long ago acquired 
a standing among the Persian dealers, and its patterns were recog- 
nized among weavers throughout Iran. This attracted the notice of 
the Sultanabad firm, which was first to promote in an extensive way 
the weaving industry of the town. That was almost twenty years 
ago. An Armenian had been the leading spirit in the management 
of the business there, and made advances to the weavers in the usual 
way, securing the carpets as soon as they were finished. Famine, 
which is too often recurrent in Persia, brought about complications, 
for in their distress the weavers spent the money entrusted to them 
for food instead of wool. Another manager took up the task, and 
for a time the rugs of Bakhshis were among the best of the Persian 
whole-carpet output. A dealer began selling them in Constantinople 
under the name of Herez. Then when they fell off in quality it be- 
came necessary to find some other title for the native products of 
Herez, which retained their sterling character. The name of a 
neighboring village was chosen, and from that time Bakhshis was 
lost sight of in the Western market. The deteriorated carpets contin- 
ued to be known as Herez, and it was thus that they obtained classi- 
fication as a coarser grade of Hamadan, especially as at that time 
Hamadan was the point of shipment. The Bakhshis of to-day, 
which no dealer will call Bakhshis, is loose, full of colors which be- 
sides being of inferior quality are ill-combined. The designs, while 
of the standard sort, such as Herati, Sardar, Shah Abbas and the 
like, are wrought with such haste that they are far from perfect. 
The medallions, when used, are apt not to be in the centre of the 
carpets, the borders are clumsily woven and without corner-pieces. 
The whole thing is eloquent of hurry. 

Gorevan. — When it became necessary for trade's sake to change 

176 



o 






PERSIAN 

the name of the Herez rugs, they were entered upon invoices of 
shippers in Tabriz as Gorevan, the name of a small village in the 
Herez district — a village which had no status at all as a producer of 
rugs. The name quickly took root and was utilized to the full by 
dealers in Constantinople and Tiflis, for at that time, as has been 
said, European and American buyers had scarcely found the way to 
the market in Tabriz. 

At first the carpets sold under this name were the old-fashioned 
Herez products, which follow a type in design and color almost as 
closely as do the Tekke and Bokhariot products of Turkestan. The 
Herez idea, which has lately regained all the favor it lost by reason 
of the Bakhshis carpets' masquerading under its name, has for its 
essential the medallion, but this medallion, as well as the boundaries 
defining the corner spaces, is in rectilinears and not with the curves 
which figure in the designs of Tabriz. The corners are set off by 
serrate lines, somewhat like the arches in the Kulah prayer rugs. 
The smaller figure in the centre is plain, solid and unpretentious. 
The color scheme is almost unvarying, and the dyes are all of a pecu- 
liar tone which distinguishes the genuine Herez at once from other 
fabrics. The ground-color, outside the small central figure and 
enclosed by the serrated lines across the corners, is an extraordinary 
blue, which while bright is soft and of a peculiarly pleasing quality. 
The corner areas are of a reddish brown, sometimes with small 
figures to break the expanse. The borders in the better examples 
are in entire harmony with the rest of the design. The main stripe 
is very broad, buff-gray in the ground color, and with pattern large 
and clearly defined. The Herez rugs have somewhat of the Sarakhs 
in design, but the colors are softer and the weave not so heavy. At: 
first sight they impress one as being too pronounced, but they are re- 
markably wholesome, and in dining-rooms, libraries, or any apartment 
where the woodwork and decoration are plain, and the furniture sub- 

177 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

stantial, are among the most desirable of the large carpets. They are 
made chiefly by women weavers, who work only in their leisure. 
This, without doubt, explains the thoroughness of the workmanship. 

Rugs of this type had become scarce at the time of my journey 
into the Orient and commanded a very high price, whether singly or 
in quantity. 

This was mainly due, of course, to the sudden accession of popu- 
larity, and beyond that to the state of practical famine that existed 
throughout the Shah's dominion, for the Herez weavers who have 
escaped from the control of the big contracting firms lacked money 
to carry on their work. That by sterling quality these rugs have 
regained good standing in spite of all disadvantages is an encourag- 
ing sign of the survival of native ability. It goes far to establish, too, 
the main point for which I am bound to contend, that a just and 
adequate price and ready sale can be found for honest rugs, honestly 
dyed and in native design. 

After the institution of the name Gorevan, Tabriz dealers began 
sending designs into the Herez district to be woven by the women 
there. This resulted in a new type of rugs, bearing the name which 
had now come to be associated with the Herez. It was a medallion, 
but of the Tabriz and Kirman drawing — reminiscent of the sixteenth 
and seventeenth century art carpets. The ground about it, however, 
was in solid cream color or ivory white, and the border of a heavy but 
very ornate character. The thing aimed at was perfection in weav- 
ing, solidity and pronunciation. The result proved the experiment a 
wise one. The rugs, while for the most part not of carpet size, had 
all the Herez and Bijar firmness coupled with the Tabriz fineness. 
In thickness they were something between the two. In workmanship 
they left nothing to be desired. Their quality and finish commanded 
a high price and their brilliancy made them impossible in plain 
rooms. Gradually, after their introduction, the name of Gorevan 

178 



PERSIAN 

came to be applied almost exclusively to these rugs, and Herez 
resumed its rightful place in the catalogue. 

Serapi. — Encouraged by the success of the new Gorevans the 
Herez weavers went a step further and took from the Tabrizlis 
some designs which, while preserving the medallion forms added 
floral elements in the ground. These partook in a small measure 
of the ornamentation found in the Tabriz rugs, but in color 
scheme and general device followed the terch Lemsa of the Sultan- 
abad factories — known in market as the " Extra Modern Persian." 
In quality they were almost if not quite as admirable as the high-class 
Gorevans. These rugs were named for the village of Sirab, and 
American dealers have converted the Persian form into Serapi. 

The graceful medallion shape in the Serapi field, commonly in 
old ivory or a camel's-hair shade, is usually defined in some other 
light color or combined with some other area of pale tint, to further 
the general purpose, which is to make the whole fabric light and 
bright and afford clear ground for the display of the elaborate vine 
and floral designs, drawn in a half impressionistic fashion and in 
colors strong but dull. All this light in the central part of the carpet 
is balanced by generous use of similar values in the borders. The 
Serapi is in nearly all respects a praiseworthy and desirable thing. 
Despite some points of resemblance the elaborate details which strike 
one in the Tabriz carpets are lacking here, and in the color scheme 
there is no similarity. In the borders and sometimes even in the 
field of Serapi, inscriptions are found, either inclosed in Arabic 
medallions or on the plain ground. The method of weaving 
employed in all the varieties is practically the same. The warp is 
cotton, as in most Persian carpets, but the knot is Turkish. All 
three varieties are apt to be broad in proportion to their length, 
instead of following the long Persian shapes. In this section at the 
present time few runners are found. 

179 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

Kara Dagh. — Among the mountains in the northern part of 
Azerbijan province, and to the east of the highroad leading south 
from Julfa, are shepherd tribes of the most bigoted Shiah sect, who 
weave rugs somewhat similar to those made by their neighbors in 
Karabagh on the north side of the Aras. The designs, which are 
bold, have more of Persian character than the Karabagh, and resem- 
ble in some points those of the Kurdish rugs. The colors are rather 
more diversified than those of the Karabagh and differently distrib- 
uted. The flowers, which are employed in imitation of the old Per- 
sian designs, are put in broadcast, which, it may be well to repeat, is 
the mark of the nomad. It seems to be a cardinal principle with the 
weavers of the Kara Dagh (Black Mountains), as it is with the 
Tchetchens, never to leave an expanse of ground-color vacant. 

It is noteworthy that the Kara Dagh weavings are not often 
seen in market, but that they have maintained their quality well. 
The reason is not far to seek. The Karabagh weavers are within 
two days of the Russian railroad. They have the great market of 
Tiflis at their doors, and with that incentive, as shown in the Caucas- 
ian countries, sacrificed everything to a rage for increased production. 
The Kara Dagh people, on the other hand, took their carpets to 
Tabriz, where they were brought into competition with the Kurd fab- 
rics and other excellent products of the western uplands. The com- 
parison discouraged them and they practically withdrew from the 
field and continued to make carpets in the old way, merely for home 
use. Even among these mountaineers the aniline colors have gained 
a substantial foothold, though not to the extent noticeable in some 
other localities. 

Weft and warp of the Kara Daghs are wool. The weft, if not 
dyed, is usually in the natural brown color, and is woven into a sel- 
vage at the sides. At one end the foundations are made into a sel- 
vage and turned over, at the other is a selvage and fringe. 

1 80 



PERSIAN 

EASTERN KURDISTAN FABRICS 
In some respects the carpets made in Eastern — or what is pop- 
ularly called Persian — Kurdistan, are the best that come to market. 
The Kurds in their fastnesses have kept more aloof from the demor- 
alization of towns than any of the other races found in Persia, and 
have been slower to take up with the meretricious tricks which other 
weaving folk have learned with such lamentable thoroughness. 
Their rugs have always been accounted representative of what is good 
in texture and color, and since they are woven principally in the tents, 
away from town influences, the quality has been fairly well preserved. 
Another element which goes far toward maintaining it is that Kur- 
distan has an unfailing supply of wool which is not surpassed any- 
where, unless it be in Kirman and certain parts of Turkestan. The 
greater part of the yarn, moreover, is spun by hand and with infinite 
care, and the result is apparent in most of the rugs which the Kurds 
bring to town for sale. 

The aniline invasion has made headway among them, and that 
is not surprising in view of the fact that throughout the wilds of 
Kurdistan the dye-shops are as rare as Eiffel towers. The Kurdish 
weavers are their own dyers, and the ease with which chemical dyes 
can be mixed is tempting. Nevertheless, after examining many hun- 
dreds of rugs, in the bazaars and on the looms, I am of opinion that 
the Kurds have clung to the old colors more tenaciously than any 
other of the weaving peoples. If the old processes are to be saved, 
they must, it would seem, be sought among the Kurds. In the dye- 
shops in the towns, certainly, they cannot be learned. Take, for ex- 
ample, the single matter of Persian blue, the essential color in all high- 
class Persian carpets. It is confessedly lost. I put to the most com- 
petent dyer I could find many questions concerning his variegated 
business. He expounded and explained and brought samples of his 
dye stuffs and his mordants, but at the close admitted that while he 

1S1 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

could make dozens of desirable blues the old color was beyond him, 
and he didn't know anybody who had any more idea of producing it 
than he had. The average Persian will lie, on principle, but the 
proof that this dyer was telling the truth was that the best blue that 
he had to show was a dead and uninspiring color when contrasted 
with a ragged scrap of an antique Herati rug, which I had found 
kicking about the bazaar in Tiflis. 

Two days later, looking over a mixed lot of runners collected 
during the preceding six months by a Persian merchant, I saw a Kur- 
dish pair, comparatively new, but in one of the best old Persian de- 
signs, and grounded in that same indescribable dark, deep and yet 
almost translucent blue, which had forced such a frank confession 
from the dyer. Under a voluminous turban, somewhere in the moun- 
tains of Kurdistan, the ancient secret of color lurks. A decade hence, 
in all likelihood, it will have gone the way of all the good things 
which once made the Persians the most enviable people in the world. 

In the rugs of the Kurdistan region there is wide variety. 
Within its confines are made not only the finest, thinnest and most deli- 
cate fabrics in Persia, but also a profusion of the heavy, board-like and 
unfoldable carpets before spoken of as " Lule." There are all the 
intermediate grades and a diversity of designs. Most of the spon- 
taneous product of the region is in the shapes used for component 
parts of the triclinium, and the long runners or kinari predominate. 
Sedjadeh are few. 

Sehna. — In the single matter of fineness of texture these rugs, 
named for the city of Sehna, situated in the mountains near the 
Turkish border, have few equals. They are of a peculiar character 
and not apparently close kin to any other floor covering, even of 
Persia. They are fully equal to the Tabriz in quality, perhaps better, 
but in design, texture and color theory are of an altogether different 
order. Barring the deterioration which has come to all the Eastern 

182 



PERSIAN 

weavings they have remained virtually unchanged, which is singular 
when the location of the city is borne in mind. On every hand 
Sehna is surrounded by rug-producing districts, each with its special 
type and all furnishing fabrics as different as possible from the 
Sehnas, but from none of these do the Sehna weavers seem inclined 
to borrow. 

In design these rugs run to small patterns and diaper arrange- 
ment, principally the pear or the fish pattern, woven with infinite 
fineness and with a skilful toning produced not by shading or grad- 
ing, but by minute variations in color. The pear, and other small 
patterns, with the arrangement of stalks with which some of them are 
combined in the body of the rug, as well as the fine border devices, 
are all wrought by painstaking and artistic method into a harmony 
which makes the whole fabric at once rich and restful as it is fine of 
texture. In most of the Sehnas the diaper of small patterns covers 
the entire field, but in many a diamond-shaped centre-piece appears. 
This is covered with a close array of the small figures, while the sur- 
rounding space, except the corners, is in solid colors or in some fine 
diaper pattern different from that of the centre either in the character 
of the device, or the tint of the ground-color, or both, just sufficiently 
to make the demarcation distinguishable. In any case the even- 
ness and harmony are preserved. For ground-color wool white 
prevails, although blue, red, or the ivory tint is sometimes used. The 
borders are divided into well-adjusted stripes, the middle one very 
wide in proportion to the others, and carrying a form of the Herati 
border design. They are all in fine consonance with the general 
character of the fabric, red and yellow predominating in the larger 
border devices. A few Sehna rugs have the pear pattern wrought 
upon a large scale, perhaps half a dozen pears covering the whole 
field, but even in these the device is treated with the characteristic 
minuteness and the soft effect is retained. 

1 3 3 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

The maximum size of the old Sehnas is about five feet wide by 
eight feet long, but owing to the constantly growing demands for 
larger rugs they are now made in other sizes. Except in rare 
instances the modern fabric is inferior to the antique. The material 
is coarser and the colors not so soft, so fast or so delicately blended. 

Sometimes the Sehnas are confused, through the general similar- 
ity of tone and pattern, with other varieties, notably the Feraghans, 
but they may be distinguished by the weave. The maximum in the 
Feraghans, even in the antiques, is about one hundred and sixty knots 
to the square inch. The true Sehna has far more than that. It has, in 
fact, no equal in this respect save the Kirman, Tabriz, Saruk and a 
few very old Turkestan rugs. 

The warp is of cotton, linen or silk. So tightly are the knots in 
some of the old Sehnas put in that a slight puckering is visible on the 
back — an appearance suggestive of cr6pe. The effort at compactness 
often results in a curling up of the fabric at the sides. This, and a 
growing decadence in the quality of the colors, are the chief faults in 
the modern Sehnas. The pile in the best pieces is more closely 
trimmed than any other rug, save the finest old Tekke or so-called 
Bokhara. Imitations of the Sehna are now included in the general 
manufacture of Tabriz. 

Kurdistan Proper. — The geographical position of Persian Kurdis- 
tan has had a remarkable influence in fixing the character of the rugs 
produced by its tribes. They are different in almost every respect 
from those made by the Kurdish tribes just over the border, in the 
hill ranges of Mosul and Van. In these provinces, as has been said 
in the note on the Mosul fabrics, the products are of the nomadic 
order, loose of texture and rough in appearance. The Persian Kurds, 
on the contrary, have learned and continue to practice a more finished 
form of craft. Propinquity to the cities of Azerbijan, Ardelan and 
Luristan has made them familiar with the carpets produced by the 

184 



PLATE XVIII 



il'A )< 

rsaqq£ 

,-ioIoj I I 







job rnoi> 

bsaJgnr ?.m<ji\ lqh:> 

■j-tr. ?.h-_n -j-"j(!T .-,'-■ 
[lout ni 

. .. 

■.- - ■> 




1'IAII Will Mixa Khani Sarani 

'••»■> 
Loaned by Mr. Robert /.. .S/, 

The Mina Khani design is one of the simplest, but most effective that has 
ever come out of the East. Althougl into the rugs of Khor. 

Turkestan, after their own methods, it belongs distinctly to the Kurds and 
they alone have been able to avoid giving a hard mechanical appearance to it. 
This is undoubtedly due to their independence and skill in the use of color, 
anil also to the fact that the Kurdish colors, particularly the blues and yellows, 
are of a splendid quality, which lends to this design its strength. This parti- 
cular piece is woven by the ruder class of people, as the lapses from accuracy 
and even from general regularity, especially in the handling of the vines, proves. 
The filling of the side spaces in the field with small nondescript items instead 
of perfecting the vine arrangement, shows this very clearly. The piece has 
undergone hard wear, but is still thick and incredibly heavy. These reds are 
always beautifully softened by age. which increases their effectiveness in such 
a color combination as this. It will be seen that the weaver has indulged in 
the prevailing Kurdish trick of leasing bands of color, for no less than three 
distinct shades of blue are here: hut it is altogether intentional, and the charm 
of the carpet is much enhanced by it. 



PERSIAN 

skilled artisans of those districts, and the points of resemblance 
between the rugs are many. The influence of Kermanshah, where 
for a long time the finest of weaving' was done, has had much to do 
with uplifting the character of the weaving throughout the entire dis- 
trict. The ideals thus established seem to have lingered among the 
Kurds. They have even outlived the glories of Kermanshah itself. 
In place of the long pile common among the Mosul Kurds, their rela- 
tives of Persian Kurdistan trim many of their fabrics almost to the 
closeness of a pure Persian carpet. They show a great diversity in 
design, and a particular leaning to repetitive patterns, arranged usu- 
ally in rows so as to form a diaper. In some parts of Kurdistan, to 
the north, the weavers have caught the Karabagh and Kabistan idea, 
and have taken up with large geometrical forms for the central fields, 
and compromised by filling in the remaining space with the small 
patterns peculiar to Persia. Another concession to the Caucasian 
idea is their choice of method. The fabrics are tied with the Ghior- 
des knot. That with this it is difficult to effect the minute alter- 
nations of color distinctive of the finer Persian carpets is, without 
doubt, the reason that these Kurds have fallen back, when weaving 
rugs for market, on Caucasian designs for filling in the central space. 
Where the Sehna or Saraband influence predominates, the entire 
field of the rug is well covered with small figures, closely crowded in 
regular rows, vertically and horizontally. Popular patterns for this 
purpose are flowering shrubs, probably a modification of the widely 
distributed tree pattern. To most of these the limitations of stitch 
have imparted erectness and symmetry which only frequent diversifi- 
cations of color soften and save from being mechanical. A typical 
form of this device has an upright stalk, with a cluster at its roots. 
The first output of branches, ascending, is quite broad, heavily 
leaved, and flowered at the ends. Then come four other and longer 
branches, two on either side, bearing lumpy clusters at the ends. 

185 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

One similar but smaller cross branch is above these, with clustered 
ends, and a clump of foliage at the junction with the trunk ; then the 
heavily leaved crest, and above that one flower as a top tuft, red bod- 
ied, perhaps, with a border of bright blue. All the branches stand out 
at right angles with the stem, and so far has the figure taken on geo- 
metrical character, that to any but an imaginative person, study is re- 
quired to discover that the design in all of its varied forms is 
arboreal. In the Turkish rugs and some Caucasians this same device, 
in even more geometrical drawing, may be found playing the part of 
border. To produce a precise stripe effect in the rows of these pat- 
terns, diagonally, the colors in the different parts of the figure — pale 
blue, brown, old gold, black, olive, and several shades of red — are 
alternated in every second figure. On the ground of dark blue or 
perhaps red, this effect is striking, and the number of these figures, 
crowded into the field, makes it seem ornate and flowery. The main 
border often carries the same pattern. 

Frequently, however, there is in the body of the rug a central 
design of some established medallion shape, covered with small figures, 
while the space about it, if dark blue, is filled with repetition of the 
pear, in dark red. If the ground-color be red the pear figure is in 
blue. Occasionally the central design consists of several large, 
lozenge-shaped figures, minutely decorated with smaller patterns. In 
the border, which carries a rich array of red and blue, relieved with 
bright yellow in small dashes, are small, variegated block and key 
patterns carried through the length of the stripe. The wider stripes 
are varied with daisies, wrought with much accuracy. The borders 
show concessions to both the influences by which the makers are sur- 
rounded. 

The Kurdistans are finished on one end with a small fringe, and 
the sides are overcast with worsted yarn, usually some shade of 
brown. The general effect and finish must be relied upon to distin- 

186 



PERSIAN 

guish them, as their patterns are too widely used in other rugs, both 
Persian and Turkish, to be at all characteristic. One mark which 
is almost invariably found in Kurd rugs is a single line in colored 
wools, embroidered on the webbing across one or both ends. The 
warp should be wool. The "Irans" — -as certain of the Persian 
nomad products are called — are often mistaken for Kurdistans, but 
in almost every case may be recognized by their cotton warp, and 
usually by a difference in the knot used. 

Kurdistan rugs are very often found in which a coarse, heavy, 
two-strand wool yarn is passed straight across, between front and 
back weft-threads, after every row of knots, as filling. In such, one 
of the regular weft-threads is omitted. The weft is the smallest of 
dyed single-strand yarns, just sufficient to hold the filling and knots 
in place. The result is amazing firmness and durability. The Bijars 
illustrate this method of filling. 

Kermanshah. — Amid the mountains which stand sentinel against 
the Turk, all along the western border, is the outpost town of Ker- 
manshah. It has long been a foremost town of the province of 
Ardelan, and the chief fortress of the West. Any intelligent Persian 
will tell you that it got the name of Kermanshah from the fact that 
one of the governors who was sent to administer its affairs, so long 
ago that tradition fails to fix the time, came from the southern prov- 
ince of Kirman. However this may be, Kermanshah, with its famous 
bazaars, its extensive garrison and its busy population, was a place of 
moment, and, thanks to the carpet-making carried on in the palace under 
the governor's patronage, its weavings became famous throughout all 
northern Persia. It has been customary, until very lately, among the 
rug dealers of the West and Constantinople as well, to attribute the 
Kirman rugs to Kermanshah. The fabrics here, however, while 
more pretentious in some ways than those of the surrounding Kurd 
country, are no longer t© be classed with the weavings of Kirman. 

187 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

The days of the palace are ended. The population of the town 
has dwindled from forty or fifty thousand to one-fifth the number. 
There is still a garrison of some strength as Persian garrisons go, 
which is saying little. The fortress and the walls are in ruins, the 
once crowded caravanserais are empty. The carpet industry, as a 
matter of fact, is no longer carried on to any extent in the town. 

The rugs which come to the Persian markets with the name of 
Kermanshah are chiefly made in the surrounding mountains, but the 
weavers hold in some measure to the traditions of the olden time. 
This is evident not only in the designs but the shape of the fabrics. 
The sedjadeh are still in vogue, which cannot be said of the other 
districts in that part of Persia, most of which produce only runners 
and the large, long centre-pieces. 

In design, the best of the Kermanshahs affect the floral treat- 
ment. The texture is looser than in many of the rugs in Persian 
Kurdistan. The pear is used in design, but in the coarser rugs it is 
woven after the manner of the Mosuls. In many ways, indeed, the 
influence of the Turkish models is made manifest in the common 
grade, but in the better pieces much of Persian quality is displayed. 
The pear pattern in these, for example, has quite the Iranian charac- 
ter. Instead of being drawn as it is in the Saraband and Shiraz, it 
appears with a shape and degree of elaboration suggestive of the 
Khorassan and Kirman designs. A singular arrangement of the pat- 
tern, too, is frequently seen in the Kermanshahs. Instead of being 
placed in rows, unattended by any other element, the pears are 
trained on undulating vines, which run diagonally across the field, and 
each figure is surrounded by some floral conceit. This design is also 
found in Kirman rugs and lately has been adopted, as everything has, 
by the factory weavers of Tabriz. The colors in some of these floral 
designs are rich and unusually good, and considerable skill is shown 
in the shading, which in most districts has been abandoned. 



PERSIAN 

There are also found in abundance the standard Persian and 
Kurdish terehs. The knot of the Kermanshah is Turkish, the warp 
sometimes cotton, another survival of the palace teaching. The sides 
are overcast with dark brown wool like most of the Kurd rugs, and 
the finishing of the ends conforms to the custom of the group. 

Sarakhs or Bijar. — These are the true " Lules." They take their 
name from the old fortified city on the Tajend, in the angle where 
Persia and Afghanistan come to the borders of Turkestan, and 
where now the Russian bear rests preparatory to swallowing both. 
They are of what may be termed native production, to distinguish 
them from factory products of the cities. Their makers are Turkish 
tribesmen who came under Genghis and Tamur from the districts 
around old Sarakhs and settled in the neighborhood of Bijar, in the 
Gehrous district of Kurdistan. The name Sarakhs is not known in 
Persia in connection with these carpets. Some of the older pieces 
which are preserved in collections were apparently the work of skilled 
artisans, and the graceful Arabi-Persian curves were used in defining 
the great central medallions which constitute the Sarakhs design. 
The ornamentation was limited, since in the old carpets even more 
than in the new, the characteristics were simplicity and power. 
The medallions found in the best Gorevans are imitations of the 
oldest and finest Sarakhs. The modern fabrics preserve the gen- 
eral design, the strong color-massing, and for the most part the 
colors also ; but they have yielded to the seduction of the straight 
line. 

The hues are few and elementary. Blending seems to be an 
almost unknown art to these people, but the plain grounds are dexter- 
ously shaded. In the staple carpets recently turned out at some 
weaving centres, effort has been made to imitate this peculiarity, but 
the intent is so apparent and the deftness of the Sarakhs weavers so 
plainly lacking, that the charm of the thing is lost, and the variation 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

set down as rayah, one of the cardinal sins in the eyes of the mas- 
ter weaver of to-day. 

Red predominates in the Sarakhs, but the primary blues, greens, 
yellows and even black and white are used in brave plenty. The 
common design is a central piece in a medallion frame, surrounded by 
a field of plain color. The corners are set off sometimes in curves, 
but oftener in rectangular triangles, a decadent substitute for the 
masterly scrolls which beautified the old examples. The grounds of 
the border, field and centre-piece, if not in any of the camel's-hair 
shades, are usually in the wonderful Sarakhs red or some bright blue, 
upon which are boldly displayed vari colored rectilinear flowers or 
unequal figures of some sort. The pear shape, crudely drawn, is 
often met with, and the daisy of our own fields is truthfully if rudely 
shown. 

Nothing could be more indescribably gay than the modern 
Sarakhs carpet of purely nomad manufacture. The fear which 
haunts the school-trained colorist, of clashing with accepted theory, 
does not hamper these hill folk. Contrast, not complement, is their 
creed. They have been accustomed to see the greenest of trees 
against the bluest of skies, the most flamboyant of reds and yellows 
side by side in the sunset. This model they know no valid reason for 
not following, with such fidelity as their scant skill in dyeing makes 
possible. The result is a marvel of consistency in high key. These 
rugs have a particular place in furnishing. Western industry and in- 
vention probably could not have designed them or an equivalent for 
them, and if it could, would not have dared. Every color is a climax, 
and their crudity gives a breadth and massing which are most avail- 
able to complete and set off apartments where the wood, walls and 
furniture are dark, and the general effect is coarse and heavy. Their 
design has been followed, and elaborated, in many of the great Ana- 
tolian carpets. 

igo 



PERSIAN 

There is in some of them, too, a brightness other than that of 
tingent. The weavers have drawn, from some source, a reckless 
tendency to ornament their works by the inweaving of birds, animals 
and men. Their production does not seem to be along the Chinese 
or Persian lines, however. The figures are more European, but it is 
the pictorial art of the child rather than of the ancient. The men 
and cows, the hens, horses and sheep are of the selfsame order as 
those which the American school boy draws upon his slate, but there 
is abundant evidence of close observation, of a humor far keener and 
broader than the power of expression which bodies it forth. It is the 
humor of the unskilled caricaturist. The man with the three-cornered 
head who stalks in the field of the nomad Sarakhs, has a body shaped 
like a city block, viewed from the avenue side, but the rainbow of 
gaudy horizontal stripes which makes his whole torso gay, is doubt- 
less a memorial to some tribal dandy, or a message of fellow feeling 
to the lurid youth of the Occident. 

In lieu of the medallion design there often appear scroll-like or 
shield devices, with some conventional floral bits interspersed. These 
are distributed sparsely upon a field of richest blue or red. The col< 
ors are dark and indescribably rich, the small scrolls, for example, be- 
ing laid in deep leaf-green, true madder red, and a peculiar blue sev- 
eral shades lighter than the ground, and so lustrous that it seems to 
be woven in silk. In this same blue the main border ground is often 
laid. This border is broad, and usually carries a graceful design of 
the Herati order. Sometimes where the field is of dark blue, the 
border ground is a correspondingly deep red, and the figures in light 
shades, with pronounced effects in yellow and old ivory, which give 
brightness to the whole expanse. These also appear in the central 
field. 

Warp, weft and pile of the Sarakhs are of wool, and the mate- 
rial with which the best of them are piled is as fine as in many of the 

191 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

costly Persian carpets. As in the Kazaks, one end is often finished 
with a fringe, while at the other the warp is turned, twisted and 
woven back upon itself with the weft, to form a broad, heavy selvage. 
The sides are overcast. The knot is Ghiordes. 

Koultuk. — There are made in the many small villages of the dis- 
trict lying between Gehrous and Zenjan, partly in the province of 
Ardelan and partly in the northwest corner of Irak Ajemi, a multi- 
tude of small runners of various sorts, including even some of the 
Herez type. They are worked on a cotton warp and with woollen 
weft and in other respects follow the Kurd models. They are heavy, 
but not of the " Lule" weight. The knot is Turkish. One end has 
a plain selvage ; the other a selvage and loose ends. The new dyes 
are used in most of these and the coloring of course is not of the 
best. A dealer in Zenjan, on the road from Tabriz to Teheran, 
began collecting these pieces, adding to them such as came to hand 
of the Kara Dagh and other weavings, and marketing the whole 
as Koultuk or Zenjan. The extreme diversity noticeable in these 
shipments forbade their taking rank as a distinct class. Constan- 
tinople rug men, reassorting the bales, cast each piece into the lot 
which it resembled most closely, and abandoned, so far as American 
invoices were concerned, both Koultuk and Zenjan ; so neither of the 
names has ever found a prominent place among the shop titles 
employed in this country. The " variety " is in reality merely a hodge- 
podge of the same sort as the so-called " Guendje," in which are com- 
prised the odds and ends of all the Caucasian and Mosul weavings. 

Souj-Bulak. — Another variety of rugs offered in considerable 
numbers in Persian markets comes from the neighborhood of Souj- 
Bulak, the old Kurdish capital on the border, some distance to the 
south of Tabriz and Lake Urumieh. The population of the district 
is overwhelmingly Kurd, and the rugs are in all the essentials Kurd- 
ish, with slight local variations. The yarns are doubled, which makes 

192 



PLATE XIX 



■ 



Plate XIX. Old Feraghan Sedjadeh 

6.8 x 4 

J Property of the A uthor 

An excellent example of eighteenth and nineteenth century work in the 
Feraghan district. The Herati, or " fish " pattern in very compact form, with 
the corner spaces distinctly set out and a species of Herat border. In the nar- 
rower stripes will be observed the pear pattern, something after the manner of 
the older Khorassans. The broad border lias the characteristic light green 
ground, which appears in most of the better and older rugs of the pui 
han weave. This green wears down quickly and leaves the other colors in 
relief. The pile yarns are trimmed closely in the beginning, and long wear 
has brought them very near to the foundations, but the design is still clear and 
the general color effect is of almost a heliotrope quality. 



PERSIAN 

the fabrics very compact. The wool is of the best and the pile soft 
and pleasant to the touch, but by reason of the close texture it stands 
straight instead of flattening like that of the Kazaks. All the pat- 
terns are Kurdish and the colors are dark — chiefly red, blue and 
brown. While strong and serviceable, the Souj-Bulak rugs are far 
from maintaining the standard of the first-class Kurd products. 

Two rows at the back of the rug indicate the single Ghiordes 
knot and the number of these to the inch measuring vertically is 
greater than when measured on the weft. The average is 7-8 by 
10-11. The finishings are of the Kurdish character. 
FERAGHAN FABRICS 

Mainly for the purpose of condensation and in order to bring 
the matter into easier focus, I have chosen to consider the Feraghan 
rug district as comprising practically all the central province of Irak 
Ajemi, extending from the eastern slope of the Bakhtiyaris to the 
great salt deserts or " Death Valleys " of Persia on the east, and from 
the Caspian Sea southward to the grim left shoulder of the Kuh 
Banan. The adjustment is somewhat arbitrary, and considered from 
a geographical standpoint would be erroneous, for the Feraghan dis- 
trict is clearly defined by the maps and does not include the localities 
where some of the rugs here classified as of the Feraghan group are 
manufactured. There will be imparted to the Feraghan by this ar- 
rangement a great diversity, but in reality not greater than the small 
territory enjoys, since the actual Feraghan industry has become 
wholly commercial, and under direction of European managers the 
weavers of the province now turn out copies of almost every known 
fabric as well as the original variety which made it famous. 

But aside from this, viewed as a whole its fabrics show, under 
the present classification, more nearly than those of any other section, 
all the features of design and color common to Persian carpets, 
whether recent or traditional, though in all save one variety they are 

193 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

lacking in the peculiar ornamental character which abides in the Kir- 
man and Tabriz. In examples which will be noted, it is plain that 
some of the group have to a certain extent been made in imitation of 
the medallion rugs. Where they have been the expression solely of 
the Persian genius they preserve more of apparent spontaneity ; there 
is more of nature in them, more likeness to the carpeting of blossoms 
upon which, in imagination if not in fact, the Persian treads his whole 
life through. 

There is close resemblance between some of these carpets of 
Feraghan and the fine fabrics of Sehna, which, as has already been 
said, are, in spite of proximity to the Turkish towns of Bijar, Hama- 
dan and Tabriz, fairly loyal to Iranian tenets and fashion in art. The 
difference between the several products of this comprehensive group 
lies mainly in the designs adopted and the quality of material used. 

As floor coverings they are of about equal value. Exception, 
however, must be made to the common grades of Feraghan proper. 
This variety marks in Persia, as the low class Ghiordes does in Turkey, 
the maximum of deterioration from an artistic standpoint. With 
quantity alone in view and with an ancient reputation to trade upon, 
quality, for which its name was for centuries honored, seems to have 
been lost sight of for a time. 

Feraghan Proper. — The saving clause in whatever may be said 
of modern Feraghan rugs must be that until lately they have retained 
the typical patterns and colors, but it requires some imagination 
to form from some of the Feraghans of to-day an idea of what 
their prototypes were. More wholesome, well wrought and alto- 
gether likeable floor coverings than the old-time Feraghans it would 
be hard to find. To the Persian they are the acme of carpeting. 
The Herati design, which has been held almost a distinctive mark of 
the Feraghan, has been, on the whole, quite steadfastly adhered to 
in one form or another — possibly because familiarity enables the 

194 



PERSIAN 

weavers to produce it quickly. In the better examples it is repeated 
upon a ground usually blue, with rich but modest variations of color. 
The borders, well balanced in width against the body of the rug, are 
wrought after the common plan of alternating rosettes and palmettes 
upon a waving vine. The borders have more white and pale tints, 
and more pronounced blues and red than the body. The ground of 
the main stripe is often laid in some shade of green. The very old 
pieces leave no room for doubt that this diaper and the same general 
character have long been distinctive of Feraghan carpets. 

The other design most often found in old and finely wrought 
Feraghans, is the Guli Hinnai, or Flower of the Henna, to which 
reference has already been made in the chapter on Design. It is 
more ornate than the Herati, and when well woven and in the antique 
coloring makes a much richer and more effective carpet. 

Within the past year or two the Sultanabad firm, which is para- 
mount in Feraghan, and some weavers in other sections, have begun 
reproducing this design in some excellent rugs, though chiefly in 
small sizes. For some time hitherto the Guli Hinnai had been much 
used in large, slipshod form, in coarse carpets. 

Many modern Feraghans, borrowing from all sources whatever 
will fill space, have a huge medallion in the central field, which, with 
the small corner spaces, has usually an ivory or white ground. The 
medallion is broken by three more or less geometrical diamond- 
shaped devices, two in blue, supporting a central and larger one in 
red. All of the central field not taken up by these labor-savers is 
filled with the recognized small Herat pattern on a blue ground. 
This design for Feraghan has been largely adopted by the manufac- 
turers of Persian carpets in America as well as in the factory towns 
of Persia and Turkey. Its borders sometimes preserve vaguely 
the old conventional Herat or Persian ideas, but more often the main 
stripe is made up of separate flower devices. Running patterns are 

195 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

retained in the small border stripes. Some of the latter Feraghans 
have wandered so far from their traditional designs as to use, for the 
central medallion, geometrical shapes somewhat like those of the Cau- 
casians, or the singular medallion with plain ground so common in 
the Hamadans. 

The true Feraghans are worked in the Sehna knot. The weft 
is of cotton, which in the moderns has deteriorated commensurately 
with the rest of the fabrics. Their pile is of wool. Instead of from 
ninety to one hundred and fifty knots to the square inch, moderns 
sometimes run as low as thirty. 

Sultanabad. — In its practical phase the whole enormous rug in- 
dustry of the province of Feraghan itself and much of that of the 
surrounding territory centres in Sultanabad. It is the carpet head- 
quarters of the European firm which controls so large a part of the 
weaving business of this section of Persia. Aside from the old de- 
signs and the modifications of them to which reference has been made 
above, the Sultanabad carpets are the conceits of European and 
American designers, working, in a way, on the old Persian models, 
but changing the colors and supplying such additions as seem likely 
to meet capricious demands. The regulation grades are heavy 
carpets of the same sizes as those made in Ghiordes and Oushak, but 
rather superior to those in quality. In the American markets the 
Sultanabads are often called " Savalans," after the ranee of moun- 
tains which towers to the north of the district. In the wholesale 
trade they are classed as " Extra Modern Persians." The designs of 
this order are known to the weavers as tereh Lemsa. The ground- 
work is usually of a pale yellowish cast, and the patterns, vines, flowers 
and the like, are boldly drawn, in stable shades of red, blue and green. 
The general effect is brilliant and the carpets have on the whole given 
satisfaction. Harsh criticism has been passed on the Sultanabad en- 
terprise, in various quarters, on the ground that it had urged the 

196 



PERSIAN 

weavers to hasty work and by confining them strictly to the designs 
placed in their hands had substituted European ideas for the " spon- 
taneous originality " which in times past has been the greatest charm 
of all Oriental art. On the other hand it may be, and is, contended 
that the Persian populace, having little or no means to prosecute the 
work of carpet-making, would have been forced to forget its craft en- 
tirely if some competent agency had not intervened to supply the ne- 
cessary materials and support. In this measure, at least, concerns of 
this sort have been conservative forces and the employment which they 
have afforded has without question kept life in the body of many a 
poverty-stricken Persian who otherwise would long ago have surren- 
dered in the struggle for the wretched bread of the country. 

Saraband. — It has been commonly believed that the name Sara- 
band, as applied to floor coverings, had some connection with the 
Saraband dance. In a way it has. The Saraband rugs are made in 
the district of Sarawan, lying immediately to the south of Feraghan. 
It is easy to understand how the Mediterranean dealers, familiar 
with the graceful terpsichorean function known as Saraband, inter- 
preted the Persian Sarawan into something that was sure to strike 
gratefully upon Western ears. 

In the Sarawan district the tereh Mir, so called from the village 
where it is said to have originated, is the almost universal design, 
and outside influences have not availed to wean the weavers from it. 
Artisans in other localities have copied the Mir Saraband, changing 
the borders or coloration to suit their fancy. Even the Herez pea- 
sants have taken to making large kali in this design, but after their 
own textile methods. 

The pure Saraband rugs are probably as clearly defined and 
adhere as closely to type as any class of carpets in Persia. Almost 
without exception the field is filled with the pear pattern. 

In its arrangement in the Saraband alternate rows will in most 

197 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

instances be found to have the stems turned in opposite directions, 
which adds more than might be believed to the balanced effect of the 
design. The colors are quiet but rich. The deepest Persian red and 
blue are used for ground-colors, one almost invariably appearing in 
the border when the other is used for the field. Sometimes the main 
ground is white or ivory color. In such cases the pear pattern ap- 
pears in red or blue. 

A feature of the Saraband, which adds much to its attractiveness 
and decorum, is the multiplication of the border stripes. These are 
all narrow, but of different widths, and sometimes there are as many 
as a dozen of them. The undulating vine is always present, but in 
very small form, and little rectilinear flowers are thrown in in place of 
the recognized lotus forms. The narrowness of these border stripes 
could scarcely be defended if the design in the body of the rug were 
other than what it is. If it were pretentious and coordinate the 
multiplicity of small stripes would be beneath it in dignity, and the 
imposing Herat or Persian borders would be in order. But the 
adaptation of the border value to the small pear shapes which make 
up the filling shows these Sarawan weavers to possess a sense of 
balance and harmony which could scarcely be improved. 

The adoption of geometrical elements into the borders is only 
one of the several evidences in the Saraband of influence other than 
Persian. Another is what has been called the reciprocal trefoil, 
referred to as a feature of the " Polish " carpets and having a place in 
certain Caucasian fabrics. It is found in avast number of Sarabands, 
and the reciprocal saw tooth is perhaps even more common. 

The genuine Mir Sarabands are tied in the Sehna knot. It is 
not unusual to find the date of manufacture worked in them. 

There is common in the Levantine marts, and frequently found 
in rug stores in this country, a fabric known to the Turkish dealers 
as Selvile. It is nothing more or less than a coarser form of Sara- 

198 



PERSIAN 

band, made by the mountaineers and copied by the weavers in other 
sections. It is tied with the Ghiordes knot, and is of about the qual- 
ity of the upper middle class Shirvan, which in some of the border 
patterns it much resembles. It presents the pear pattern in large, 
loose form, and the field is overweighted by the number and solidity of 
its border stripes. It has a two-thread overcasting at the sides, made 
with the colored weft. The narrow web at the ends is of the same 
color. On one end there is a rather long knotted fringe of the warp 
which is of fine, grayish wool. On the other end the loop of the warp 
through which the rod has passed is allowed to twist and left for 
finishing. Rugs of this description are sold in this country under 
whatever name happens to be most convenient at the time. 

Hamadan. — In the shadows of Mount Elwund, in and around 
the city of Hamadan (ancient Ecbatana, burial-place of Esther and 
Mordecai), a great rug industry is carried on. Most of the fabrics 
made here have, until lately, followed an established theory in design, 
and to a large extent in color as well. Within the past two or three 
years, so great was the success of the Hamadan weavings, looms 
have been set up in nearby neighborhoods where before no rug-mak- 
ing was done. In these the designs of other parts have been imi- 
tated, and the object is to substitute a regular " factory " output for 
the old production, which was wholly characteristic of Hamadan. 
Cause for this may be found in the decline in popularity which the 
typical rugs of the district have suffered. There is little difficulty in 
distinguishing the Hamadan carpet from all other weavings, unless it 
be from others made in imitation of them at the time when their 
vogue was greatest. 

A considerable quantity of filik, as well as camel's-hair in the 
natural color, is used in the pile. The prevailing colors are red, blue 
and yellow, all in strong values, which gain a lustre from the materi- 
als. The real camel's-hair antique examples are very rare now, and 

199 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

vast prices are demanded for them. The moderns, while rougher, 
and harsher in color than the older rugs, are honest and service- 
able fabrics. 

They have generally a plain color, in most cases ivory-white or 
some shade of camel's-hair, for the groundwork of the central field ; 
if not this, then a fret diaper in camel's-hair shade upon a back- 
ground of ivory-white or cream color. There is a medallion of some 
pretension in the middle, and the corner spaces are set off to accord 
with it. These divisions are very positive, but the outlines are shapely. 
The flower patterns with which the inclosed areas are adorned, are 
laid in a rather light blue and striking shades of red. Around the 
outside of the rug is the tevehr, or broad band of natural camel's-hair, 
of a tint like that used in the body, or of wool dyed in some pale 
ivory or primrose tint. Sometimes a stripe of rich red is thrown in 
just inside this band, fetching up against the border stripes, which 
are adorned with rectilinear forms of the vine and flower pattern. 

There are also some peculiarly compact diaper patterns used in 
the Hamadans, which are seldom found in any other fabrics. The 
most common of these is known as Ina Dar — or the " Mirror" de- 
sign. It is complex and leaves little if any of the ground space visi- 
ble. The essential outline of the design is at first glance indistinct. 
It is involved with the accessories in such a way as to obscure it. 
The colors, dull red, blue and yellow, are so intermingled as to give 
the whole design a dull pinkish tinge, which comports well with the 
plain band of camel's-hair with which it is enclosed at the sides and 
ends. The general color effects of the typical Hamadans are shown 
in Plate XIV of the illustrations. 

Among the principal tributaries of the Hamadan market is the 
Kara-Geuz field, lying to the east. It has long been a weaving 
section and the workmanship is fairly well up to the Hamadan stan- 
dards, solid and substantial. In order to supply a demand made upon 



PLATE XX 



•ri'i 






la 



lo I 

■ 



i 



Plate XX. Shiraz Run 

10.4 x 4.10 

Loaned by Mr. Reginald //. Bulley 

This piece, though made for practical use. is fully up to the best traditions 
of Shiraz weaving. The three principal colors, rose, ivory and blue, are equal 
to those found in any part of Persia, even of old time. It is woven of the 
Niris wool, extremely soft and glossy, but the body of the fabric, thanks to 
stout foundations, is most substantial. All the characteristic finishings of 
Shiraz are here. 



PERSIAN 

the Tabriz, Tiflis and Constantinople dealers, runners from twenty- 
five to thirty-five feet long are now made in the Kara-Geuz. They 
are in all sorts of designs, and in some of them the anilines are 
rampant. 

The old Kara-Geuz runners resembled in many respects certain 
rugs of Kurdistan. They have been sold in America under the name 
of Iran, a never-failing retreat for the vendor who is in doubt about 
the precise origin of a Persian rug. The warp and weft in most cases 
are of cotton and the sides are overcast. The texture constitutes the 
chief difference between them and the Kurdistans. 

On the road leading south from Hamadan is a group of villages, 
chief of which are Oustri-Nan and Burujird, where some sterling rugs 
are woven for the Hamadan trade. They are compactly made ; the 
ground of the border is white, with some conventional device remote- 
ly derived from the pear set at short intervals transversely of the bor- 
der, and with the apex of the cone pointing inward. The Saraband 
pattern is used for the field, and but for the borders and texture the 
rugs might be taken for Saraband. They have cotton warp and 
weft, the latter dyed. They are overcast with colored wool. There 
is a solid finish at one end and a fringe at the other. The knot is 
Turkish and the average from seventy-five to ninety to the square 
inch. 

A new and important branch of the Hamadan system is Bibik- 
abad, where the industry has recently been begun upon a consider- 
able scale. The designs are diverse, the texture somewhat looser than 
that of the Kara-Geuz rugs and the colors, up to the time of the 
Shah's edict, not all that could be wished for. 

Teheran-Ispahan-Saruk. — Nothing could illustrate better the 
way market-places throughout the Orient give their names to com- 
modities brought to them for sale, than the survival of these names 
in rug nomenclature. Just how long a time has elapsed since carpets 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

in any number were made in either the present or former capital of 
Persia, it would be difficult to determine, but there is scarcely a rug 
shop of note which has not Teheran and Ispahan rugs to offer to the 
customer. In the Tabriz bazaars the dealer has no idea what is 
meant by Teheran and Ispahan. And yet the types, as represented 
in America, are fairly well defined. After careful inquiry, and exami- 
nation of rugs sold in Persia, I believe that all the fabrics called 
Teheran and Ispahan are the products of the village of Saruk in the 
Feraghan district, and, for the rest, vagrant pieces which come 
from the looms of Kirman, by the way of Bushire or the Indian 
ports, to England. In Kirman, longer, perhaps, than in any other 
place in Persia, the ability to weave well the pure floral and realistic 
designs has endured. A similar form of craftsmanship still exists in 
Saruk ; the old designs of this order are also copied faithfully in the 
great factories of Tabriz. 

In these "Teheran" and "Ispahan" fabrics the national genius 
for rich realistic floral decoration maintains very clear expression. 
There is in them a profusion that makes them known instantly. The 
freedom with which the designers have gone abroad in the whole 
realm of nature in quest of forms has resulted in a prodigality of or- 
namentation which only halts short of redundancy. All the forms 
and hues of trees and plant life, birds, animals, fishes, clouds, ara- 
besques, thus broad is the field in which the designer of these carpets 
counts it his privilege to gather materials. With such a range it is 
plainly impossible to suggest anything nearly approaching a common 
design. It is the very richness and multiformity which are typical. 

There can be little doubt that many of the designs seen to-day 
were devised in another century, and that they have been copied with 
slight variation, generation after generation. The best of them re- 
flect an artistic spontaneity which does not abide in the atmosphere 
of Persia or any other part of the Orient in our time. It is likely 



PERSIAN 

that such designs of this class as impress us as being meagre and in- 
ept have undergone the greater changes and express more truthfully 
the present tendency. 

In most of the " Ispahan " rugs there are to be found, prominent 
among the forms upon the dark red or blue field, the clearly marked 
cones of the cypress tree. Its peculiar dull green, in such perfect 
complement to the value of the red which is usually dominant, lends 
a sombre suggestion, a note somewhat funereal in the midst of all the 
vernal brightness. It is strikingly demonstrative of the artistic mel- 
ancholy which pervades the Persian mind. This cypress, indirectly 
an emblem of mourning, but really conveying, as all trees do, the idea 
of perfect and renewed life, distinguishes the great carpets made for 
use in the mosques and the grave carpets, once so much used in Per- 
sia. Additional evidence of their character is afforded, especially in 
those of Ispahan, so called, by the presence of a willow with solemnly 
trailing branches — a combination recognized by Persian weavers 
under the name of Tereh Asshur. The cypress and willow, carved 
upon headstones in the old graveyards of our own land, may perhaps 
be a survival of this design. The prayer rugs of this variety often 
have the willow in the centre, and a succession of cypresses along the 
sides of the field, with two of them so inclined as to meet at the top, 
forming the prayer arch. 

Some of the " Teheran " rugs show a more formal tendency in de- 
sign and while retaining the local richness of color have their fields 
covered with small pear patterns of the elongated forms found in Per- 
sian and Indian shawls. Sometimes the effect is made diagonal, when 
the small patterns are used, by alternating the colors. 

In the borders the old pattern of vines carrying rosettes at regu- 
lar intervals, is common ; so in the " Ispahans" is the Herat border. 
In many " Teherans " the realistic flowers take on a formal decorative 
character, and the spaces between them are occupied by the long 

203 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

medallion forms known as "cartouches." In rugs of the highest class 
these cartouches often contain, after the Moorish fashion as preserved 
in the decoration of the Alhambra, verses from the national poets, 
appropriate to the designs, or — though religious scruples make this 
rare — passages from the Koran. 

The designs here described have recently been made in the fac- 
tory towns in very large, almost whole-carpet sizes — another indication 
of the change which has come over the weaving art of the East. Rugs 
are now looked upon as carpetings — and little more. But these big, 
new pieces have retained the old patterns and coloring, and to a remark- 
able degree the fineness of stitch. There has been for some time 
past, until the present year, a scarcity of rugs of this order which 
showed any sign of age. This year has found the markets of Con- 
stantinople well supplied with the profuse floral pieces. 

A word further should be said concerning the village of Saruk 
and its weaving. It is situated in the Feraghan district proper, but 
its rug-makers have stubbornly refused to come under the protection 
of the European firms. They turn out only a limited number of 
pieces in a year, pieces of a fineness to put Tabriz to the blush. 
Nearly all these are taken to Teheran and immediately bought up by 
wealthy Persians, who pay for them a far higher price than they would 
command if offered for sale in the open market. The interesting 
feature of it is that these same Persian magnates, who might reason- 
ably be expected to stickle for carpets dyed with vegetable tingents, 
never demur at the loose colors which are the only drawback to the 
Saruks. This contradiction seems to be universal throughout the 
kingdom. I visited the home of a Persian merchant, and upon 
arrival, was ushered into a reception room where we had tea Persian 
fashion, that is, sitting on the floor. In the apartment there were 
spread half a dozen or more sedjadeh pieces — the floral panels of Kir- 
man. From all of them the color had faded. In some only misty 

204 



PERSIAN 

shadows remained of the designs, ghosts of what — and not so very- 
long ago — had been riotous masses of color. The master of the 
house, with Persian quickness, saw that his carpets had attracted notice. 
"I know what you are thinking," he said. "You are thinking it is 
strange that a Persian who can afford anything else should content 
himself with carpets dyed with anilines. The truth is, I like them. 
The softer the tone of the carpet, the less aware you are of the colors 
in it, the more restful it is. These loose dyes fade quickly under the 
sun, and then you have — that. It is beautiful." 

And so the fine, flower-strewn rugs of Saruk, with their question- 
able dyestuffs, are sold for three prices, before the warp of them is 
stretched upon the loom. 

"Jooshaghan" or Djushaghan. — Among the best carpets in Persia 
are the soft-toned but hard-woven fabrics which are called J 00- 
shaghan. The name is another of those which are brought in for 
every emergency. The genuine carpets of this variety have not been 
largely sold in America, since the district where they are made is 
within easier reach of the Persian Gulf ports than the markets of the 
North. The fabrics are therefore better known in England than 
here. 

The Djushaghan or Dshushekan district is some distance south of 
Feraghan. Its weavers, like those of Feraghan, have shown a de- 
cided loyalty to the local design, which, when in its purity and 
well woven and colored, is one of the most pleasing to be found in 
Persia. In general effect it resembles the Saraband, but the design 
has not the definition which is afforded by even the most delicate 
rendition of the pear pattern. It has something of likeness to the 
" Mirror" pattern found in the Hamadans in point of color, and also 
in the fact that the main features do not obtrude themselves upon 
notice. The foundation of it is Arabic, and the outline, like so many 
of the Arabic traceries, is continuous, passing on from one figure to 

205 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

another. The principal element is a cross, the ends of which, instead 
of being square, are angular, and the lines forming this angle inter- 
sect each other, and are carried along to form points of adjoining 
crosses. This, it will be seen, leaves an eight-pointed star space be- 
tween every four crosses. This space is filled with the subordinate 
elements of the design, and the centre and arms of the cross itself are 
likewise adorned with conventional floral figures — four-petaled flow- 
ers and a diagonal arrangement of leaves. The border ground is of 
much lighter red than the body of the carpet, and the patterns are 
small floral shapes in dull colors, relieving a geometrical key shape 
similar in conception to the X-shape in the Shiraz rugs. The entire 
fabric is usually in a soft tone of red. 

The warp is wool, and there is a hard, thin, narrow web at the 
end. The sides are overcast, and the knot is Turkish. There are 
from nine to twelve knots to the inch measuring horizontally and 
eight to eleven perpendicularly. 

KIRMANIEH FABRICS 

All the rugs sent from the southern part of Persia between the 
Shat-el-Arab and the Persian Gulf on the west, and the plains of 
Seistan and Beluchistan on the east, may be classed as Kirmanieh 
fabrics. They are made chiefly by the nomadic Karmanian tribes, 
some of them descendants of the old Parsees, though the Turkoman 
elements contribute largely to the product of the district, and their 
fabrics are thorough counterparts of some of those still found in the 
Caucasus. The excellent carpets made by the people of the villages 
throughout Laristan are included under the head of Kirmanieh. 

The honesty of these weavings has hitherto brought them great 
popularity, and though signs of demoralization are visible, remoteness 
from the avenues of commerce and travel makes it seem likely that 
some time will elapse before they can come wholly under the influence 
which has utterly changed so many classes of Eastern carpets. An 

206 



PERSIAN 

English firm, however, has established an agency at Bushire on the 
Gulf coast and another at Bassorah, for the collection of carpets from 
this territory. Their collectors journey to up-country towns, hire a 
khan or building of some sort, and send out word into the surround- 
ing hamlets and countryside that they are there to buy. The heads 
of weaving families bring in their whole year's product in response to 
this notice, and thus a thoroughgoing market system will ultimately 
be built up. The rugs can be got to Bender Abbas or Bushire, 
and thence shipped to England or Constantinople. 

The materials used in the best of the Kirmanieh fabrics — the 
Kirman proper and the high-class Shiraz — are taken from the flocks 
which herd on the shores of the salt lake Niris. 

Kirman. — American rug dealers have never had very intimate 
acquaintance with the rugs of Kirman, capital of the southernmost 
Persian province. In the early days of rug importation to this 
country Kirman, like other and even less remote parts of Persia, was 
little known. The European travelers who had visited it were few. 
Those entering Persia from the south disembark at Bender Abbas or 
Bushire, go to Shiraz and thence directly North, to Ispahan, leaving 
Yezd, Kirman and the desert far on their right. Kirman's commun- 
ication is chiefly with the East. Even to-day it stands out of the 
beaten path of travel, and the cities of the North, which count Shiraz 
as neighbor, though not a very near one, still look upon Kirman as 
far away. 

This explains, in a measure, the confusion which has always exist- 
ed in regard to the character of the Kirman carpets, which hitherto 
have come in limited numbers to this country, though in London they 
have enjoyed renown. In the section devoted to Kurd rugs reference 
has been made to the current belief that Kermanshah, in the moun- 
tains of Kurdistan, was the birthplace of these very interesting fab- 
rics. This error, which only existed outside the confines of Persia, 

ao7 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

lias been dispelled. Now that the Tabriz rugs, modeled after the 
later fabrics of Kirman, have fairly choked the markets, the Kirman 
exports have begun to appear in comparative plenty in Stamboul. 

The carpet industry in Kirman is old, and has been, if Rectus is 
to be believed, more tenacious of life than some of the arts which 
throve there in other times. He says ; " Since the visit of Marco 
Polo Kirman has lost its manufacture of arms, but its embroideries 
and carpets are always high prized." The endurance of textile indus- 
try here, when other arts have failed, is due, no doubt, to the plenti- 
tude of unequalled wool. The descriptions given of the manner in 
which carpet weaving is carried on in Kirman show that it was done 
studiously, and freedom from contact with the rest of the world served 
to perpetuate local methods and characteristic designs. 

In the book of Sir F. J. Goldsmid, upon " Eastern Persia," pub- 
lished in 1876, is to be found the clearest utterance regarding the 
carpets of Kirman, an utterance formulated on the notes of eye wit- 
nesses of the manufacture. It says : " The curiosities of Kirman 
are the carpet and shawl manufactures. The former, once the most cele- 
brated in the East, have much diminished in number since the siege, 
from which date all the calamities of Kirman. In the governor's 
factory alone are the finer qualities produced. The white wool of the 
Kirman sheep, added perhaps to some quality of the water, gives a 
brilliancy to the coloring, unattainable elsewhere. In patterns the 
carpets are distinguishable from those of the North and West by this 
purity of color, and a greater boldness and originality of design, due 
probably to a slighter infusion of Arab prejudice on the subject of 
the representation of living forms. Not only flowers and trees, but 
birds, beasts, landscapes and even human figures are found in Kirman 
carpets. The Wakil-ul-Mulk gave me two in return for a pair of 
breech-loading pistols of greater value that I presented him with, and 
J purchased a still finer one in the bazaar." 

208 



PERSIAN 

This is supplemented by the report of Major Oliver B. St. John, 
embodied as part of the same volume. His description of the way 
in which the Kirman weaving is done would serve almost equally 
well as a picture of the work in the Tabriz factories. 

He says : " From the shawl manufactory we went some little dis- 
tance to that of the no less celebrated carpets. These are manufact- 
ured in a way reminding one strongly of the Gobelin tapestry made 
at present, or rather, before the war, in Paris. The looms are 
arranged perpendicularly, and the workers sit behind the loom, but in 
this case, unlike the Gobelins, they have the right side of the carpet 
towards them. The manufacture of carpets differs from that of 
shawls in this particular, that each carpet has a painted pattern, designed 
and drawn out by the master of the manufactory, which is pinned to 
the centre of the carpet, and which the workers can consult if neces- 
sary, from time to time. Advantage, however, is rarely taken of this 
facility of reference, for the boy who sits nearest the pattern reads 
out in a monotonous voice any information required concerning it. 
The carpets are made entirely of cotton, woven by the fingers into the 
upright web. Their manufacture is tedious and costly in the extreme, 
but they are beautifully soft and durable. The work is constantly 
hammered close together by a wooden hammer every few stitches. 
The man whose manufactory we visited was said to be without a rival 
in Persia either in the designing of beautiful rugs, or in skill in mak- 
ing them. We saw a beautiful carpet that he was making for a 
shrine at Meshhed, which was to cost five thousand tomans, or two 
hundred pounds, being eleven yards long by about two and a half 
broad; than which nothing could have been more beautiful. The 
boys and men do not look so unhealthy as those in the shawl shops." 

The designs of Kirman, to this day, are of the floral order, but: 
in the recent carpets — those which have been taken as models for the 
Tabriz rugs — the medallion idea is paramount. The panels are not 

209 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

so hard or so heavy as those of Tabriz in appearance ; the flowers are 
treated with a light and natural touch and with that appearance of 
relief found scarcely anywhere else, save in very old carpets of the 
neighboring province of Khorassan. But in the older Kirman pieces 
— the sort which one seldom sees nowadays, there is evidence of 
greater freedom, of individual conceit. An indisputable example of 
this was found in a loan exhibition in the Library of Pratt Institute in 
Brooklyn, N. Y. Its origin was proven by an inscription woven in a 
cartouche in its border, " Amli Kirman, made at Kirman," and then, 
" Karim," doubtless the name of the weaver. It was an old rug and 
the registration of its date, which was also included in the inscription, 
brought to light another interesting fact, that Karim, the weaver, was 
not of the ordinary type of Mohammedan Persians, but a descendant 
of the ancient Persis or Zoroastrian fire worshippers, who had refuge in 
the city of Kirman. That city and Yezd are known to be now the 
only places in Persia where any considerable colonies remain of the 
Zoroastrians, who in modern Persian are called Zerdusht. Record of 
date in Eastern carpets is usually made by the reckoning of the 
Hegira, now inching along into its fourteenth century. This rug of 
Kirman bore date of 2918. The solution was obvious, since this is 
the thirtieth century of the Zoroastrian era. Rough computation 
showed that the rug was in the neighborhood of a hundred years old. 
The pile had been so worn away that it was difficult to determine the 
knot used. So Karim, the weaver, had years ago been gathered to 
his fathers, but this old rug, perhaps the meanest of his handiworks, 
was one to do him credit. It amuses one to wonder what would have 
been the thoughts and impressions of Karim if he could have seen it 
hanging there with the trader's tag upon it, and the strange, " Fer- 
enghi "-looking people staring at it and looking up its number in the 
catalogue. It was listed, by the way, as an India Kashmir. And 
there is yet another story, for much of the export of Kirman is across 



PERSIAN 

the desert to the East and out of India by way of Bombay. It is 
thus, without doubt, that so many of the Kirman rugs have found their 
way to England. 

At any rate, the rug of Karim was thus : About four feet by 
seven, with a ground of "soft buff-gray." Upon this were woven in 
rows, transverse and diagonal in effect, instead of perpendicular, blue 
vases full of roses. They were like the flowers of Khorassan, drawn 
in perspective and with the petals shaded. They seemed to have 
body. There were long stems with buds, marvellously made buds, 
hanging over the sides of the vases, and, besides these, three full- 
blown flowers, upright and magnificent, in each vase. So lavish was 
this rose show that comparatively little of the ground-color appeared. 
There were eighteen of the vases, all of exquisite pattern, all with 
variations of the blue in their coloring, and some small, scarcely dis- 
coverable difference in their ornamentation. 

The border stripes were five, the middle one broad, and grounded 
in a yellow so golden that one must wonder how it could be obtained 
in wool. The narrow stripes immediately adjoining this were black 
of ground, but so filled with little flowers of red and yellow, and 
leaves of pale green, that the contrast with the border stripes was all 
but done away with. The innermost and outermost stripes, again, 
were yellow as gold. All the stripes were floral and the flowers were 
chiefly red, with exquisite offsetting foliage in delicate green tints. 

And the weaver had wrought some magic into his rug. In the 
daytime the reds of the roses seemed to lie asleep, to be dulled 
almost to crushed colors by the years which had gone over them ; 
only the golden yellow of the borders shone in the brightness of day 
as if it were burnished. Under the glare of the lights, when night 
came, the fabric was transformed. The gold vanished. The yellow 
was almost of a part with the " soft buff-gray " of the field. But the 
roses of Karim, with their wonderful shading, burst into a mass of 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

flame. It was as if he had laden them with all the fire his old Iranian 
ancestors worshipped. Such was the true rug of Kirman. 

For all that, it is only due to the spirit of technical accuracy to 
add that the old weaver had used a two-strand cotton warp and 
woollen weft of a single strand ; that the sides of the fabric were 
overcast, and the ends finished with only a narrow web and the 
white tips of the warp, which, across half of one end, were plaited 
into little ropes. Karim put in about a hundred and twenty knots of 
Kirman wool to every square inch of his rug. May his soul dwell 
forever in the smile of Ormuzd. 

Shiraz. — Here in Farsistan is one of the most Persian towns in 
Persia, for here during a dozen centuries the ancient Parsa had its 
capital. Shiraz, home of wine, roses and nightingales, birth-place and 
tomb of Hafiz, smiles to-day in the very shadow of older Persepolis, 
"the courts where Jamshyd gloried and drank deep." 

While Shiraz remained the centre of government, the palace 
manufacture of carpets to be given by the Persian lords to potentates 
of other countries was conducted upon a splendid scale, and the work 
produced was the finest of which the Persian genius was capable. 
The few specimens of the old handiwork which remain show traces of 
northern influence, but their workmanship and color handling do not 
suffer by comparison with the most artistic creations of old Kirman 
and the later capitals of Persia. The untutored elements have, how- 
ever, so far prevailed in the rug-weaving of late years that the fabrics, 
while thoroughly good floor-coverings and attractive to a degree, 
show none of the several phases of artistic advancement which have 
distinguished the weavings of places farther north, or, in days gone 
by, of Shiraz itself. The distribution over a wide expanse of country 
of the people who make the Shiraz rugs, and their exposure to differ- 
ent decorative influences on all sides have resulted in a wide variation 
of design ; but in most of these the same clear, clean drawing is mani- 



o 

PQ 



PERSIAN 

fest, and the colors — blue tones seeming to predominate — are bright 
and strong, and have the merit, even now, of being largely vegetable. 

Numberless Shiraz carpets are found with the central field cover- 
ed with pear patterns. They may be distinguished from the pure 
Sarabands without difficulty, since the Shiraz treatment is on a rather 
larger scale and more rectilinear than that found elsewhere, excepting 
in a few Kabestans and some of the carpets of Mosul. The whole 
field, again, may be filled with a succession of narrow perpendicular 
or diagonal stripes, in plain colors, or adorned with figures, animals, 
and trees. In yet other examples appear the rectilinear central figures 
of the Caucasians, with hard, clean-cut decoration like that of 
Daghestan and Shemakha. But in such case the ground surrounding 
the central figure invariably carries rich, bold flowers, or the pear 
or tree figures. 

The borders are almost always of generous width, and richly 
ornamented. Some of the flower patterns are quite large and gay, 
but still conventional. The waving vine is poorly, but almost invari- 
ably illustrated in the narrow stripes by a typical pattern, consisting 
of two full, oval-shaped flowers, in alternate red and blue. Another 
favorite small stripe is made of X-shaped figures, with diamonds in 
the spaces between them. The Shiraz displays unusual features of 
finish. At the ends of some rugs, for example, between the pile and 
the narrow cloth web, the weaver makes a heavy but very narrow sel- 
vage, by weaving together in a coarse check pattern, in the Sumak 
stitch, red, white and blue yarn, in thick strands of each color. Some- 
thing resembling this is found in certain of the Turkoman rugs and 
in many Kurdistans, where it takes the form of stripes of colored 
yarn embroidered across the narrow web at the ends. The sides 
of the Shiraz are usually overcast, sometimes in one color, some- 
times two or three. Additional lengths of all the yarns used in 
the piling are occasionally laid along the sides and bound in by the 

213 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

overcasting. This does the double service of strengthening the edges 
and making them as thick as the piled part. In some rugs an orna- 
mental use is also made of this binding. At intervals of from twelve 
to fourteen inches, loops of these added strands are left outside the 
overcasting, and then cut so as to form a series of particolored tufts 
along both sides of the rug. The effect is very odd. The foundation 
threads are of wool, fine and white, or in coarse, colored grades, 
according to the rug's quality. Shiraz carpets are made as large as 
nine by twelve, but such sizes are rare. The small pieces include 
many saddle covers, in the making of which the nomads of Farsistan 
excel. 

Most singular, perhaps, among the Shiraz fabrics which reach 
America are certain rugs having a field of plain color, and for borders 
successive three- or four-inch stripes of several colors, all without ves- 
tige of a design. They are about four and one-half by seven feet, 
and have on an average eighteen or twenty knots to the square inch. 
The paucity of stitches does not indicate flimsiness of texture, as 
might be imagined, for after each row of knots there are six or eight 
threads of dyed weft, causing the pile, which is long, to lie flat. The 
wool is extremely fine and soft. These are nothing more than " com- 
forters," made to be used as coverings, but the genius of trade has 
converted them into carpets. They have the Shiraz peculiarities of 
finish, the checked colored selvage at the ends, and tufts of yarn adorn- 
ing the overcasting at the sides. 

It will be well to recall here the fact that Shirvans, of the 
Caucasian fabrics, are frequently offered as Shiraz. The true Shiraz 
rugs may be known almost invariably by the small checked selvage 
at the ends. They are worked in the Ghiordes knot, which makes 
the task of distinguishing them from some Caucasians a difficult one 
where the patterns are alike. 

Niris. — These rugs are made by the hillmen in the uplands 

«4 



PERSIAN 

around the salt lake Niris, in Laristan. A city of similar name is 
near by. The fabrics show many marks of relationship with the 
modern Shiraz, especially the checked selvage at the ends, and 
though usually rougher than the Shiraz, excel them in some respects 
as floor-coverings. They are never as closely woven as the finest of 
Shiraz products, but on the whole are stronger and more durable. 
The wool of the sheep grown hereabouts is unsurpassed. The best 
of it is used by the Niris weavers for piling their rugs. Both warp 
and weft are of stout, well made woollen yarn. 

Madder red is the prevailing color. The designs vary, though 
not to so great an extent as in the Shiraz. In some Niris rugs there 
is a well wrought centre-piece, surrounded by a wide space in plain 
color, and corners elaborately woven. In some an all-over design is 
employed for the field, showing a pronounced stripe effect, one per- 
pendicular row of odd geometrical figures alternating with a row of 
stiff floral forms. The borders are quite elaborately woven. In 
these, as in the Shiraz, the barber-pole stripe of the Caucasians occurs, 
but in both cases shows several strong, contrasting colors instead of 
simple alternation of red and white, as found in the Caucasian forms. 
The Niris are also worked in the Ghiordes knot. 

These rugs are one of several varieties which have long been 
grouped together by English rug men under the name of Laristan. 
The peculiar geometrical figures mentioned as occurring in the field 
are souvenirs of the Mongols, who overran these parts, and whose 
posterity still remain in force in some localities. Some of the designs 
are clearly Tartarian, and the fabrics seem more like some product of 
Turkestan than of southern Persia. 

Mecca. — One of the pet delusions of rug purchasers, which has 
for years been industriously fostered by the trade, is that there exists, 
for commerce, such a thing as a " Mecca " rug, and that it can be 
bought with all its sanctity upon it, in shops in this country. 

215 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

" Mecca," as a name for a rug, tells nothing positive concerning the 
locality of manufacture, and usually nothing but untruth in any regard. 
"But," a New York dealer said, "you must have something which 
you can tell them is a Mecca." 

There journey to the holy city of the Moslems, each year, more 
than half a million Mussulmans, bound upon pilgrimage. They come 
from all parts of the vast territories of which Abdul Hamid II. is 
spiritual, if not temporal, ruler ; from Morocco and the Barbary coasts, 
from the South, from India, from Persia and Afghanistan, an endless 
procession moves to display its faith at the Kaaba. Through Con- 
stantinople, by boat from Batoum, one hundred thousand of these 
devotees pass from the Trans-Caucasus, Turkestan and the north of 
Persia alone. All of this multitude bring offerings proportionate to 
their store, to be laid upon the shrine. Jewels, shawls, scarfs, 
armour, furs, perfumes — everything of value is accepted, and the accu- 
mulation creates an admirable stock in trade for the mercenary mol- 
lahs, whose happy function it is to fix the rates of sacrifice. This 
consecrated gentry drives a thriving trade in textiles, jewelry, and 
bric-a-brac, and the carpet export from Mecca is enormous, and hete- 
rogeneous in proportion. 1 

1 All the rugs and other commodities carried by these pilgrims upon their journey are not in the 
nature of religious sacrifices. The Prophet left them this thoughtful paragraph in his message : " It 
shall be no crime in you if ye shall seek an increase from your Lord by trading during the pilgrimage." 
The Prophet's understanding of his people, past, present, and to come, was intimate and acute. That 
it was based upon experience and practical test rather than pure inspiration, is strongly suggested by 
the first set of tenets which he established, and which later were much modified to meet the require- 
ments of the Mussulman case. Among them are these : 

1. Do unto another as thou wouldst that he should do unto thee. 

2. Deal not unjustly with others, and thou shalt not be dealt with unjustly. If there be any 
difficulty of paying a debt, let the creditor wait until it be easier for him to do it ; but if one remit in 
alms it will be better for him. 

3. O merchants, falsehood and deception are apt to prevail in traffic. He who sells a defective 
thing, concealing its defects, will provoke the anger of God and the curses of the angels. 

4. Take not advantage of the necessities of another to buy things at a sacrifice ; rather relieve 
his indigence. 

There are commandments here which, conscientiously kept, would alter the whole complexion 
of the Eastern rug trade, were that trade in the hands of Moslems, which it is not. 

216 



PERSIAN 

As a rule, the rugs purchased from the mollahs, who bring them 
down to Jiddah — since no infidel foot is permitted to enter the con- 
fines of the Holy City — are of good quality, for a faithful Moslem 
would scarcely offer an unworthy gift to his Deity; but they are of every 
sort that the Orient sun shines upon. The greater number are 
Shiraz. To such an extent have these been wont to predominate 
that a certain order of Shiraz sedjadeh of a blue cast, and about five 
feet wide by seven feet long, came to be known in the trade as 
" Mecca " rugs. 

This was the doing of the English dealers, who, having received 
shipments direct from Jiddah, had noticed the predominance of the 
Shiraz type, and so called that type Mecca. The maintenance 
among American rug sellers of the belief that these are really Mecca 
rugs is primarily due to the fact that until fifteen years ago only a 
very few buyers for American houses had ever gone to Constanti- 
nople to secure carpets. The rest, instead, had bought from the im- 
porting firms in London, and taken their terminology with the goods. 

Nearly all the carpets left by the pilgrims, and thousands with 
which no pilgrim has ever had aught to do, are sent from Jiddah up 
through the Suez Canal to Cairo, to be sold to tourists. Others are 
carried to England, and an infinitely small number to Constantinople. 
Of late years, so great has grown the business of the Mecca priests, 
thrifty captains of sailing vessels and tramp steamers plying in 
the Persian Gulf pick up at small prices what rugs they can in sea- 
port towns, and as they come out through the Red Sea on the way 
westward, drop them at Jiddah, and sometimes turn a pretty penny 
thereby. This, doubtless, accounts for the prevalence of the Shiraz 
type. 

One thing is certain, that since the great majority of American 
merchants do not go to Cairo, but to Stamboul and Smyrna for their 
rugs, the actual number of Mecca relics of the textile sort which find 

217 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

their way to this country is almost wholly confined to the private 
purchases made by American idlers about the Delta of the Nile. 
So greedily are the rugs picked up there, that consignments are sent 
from Smyrna and Constantinople to be peddled in Cairo as sacred 
things from Mecca or furnishings from Egyptian palaces. 
KHORASSAN FABRICS 

Sterling carpets, some of which possess much artistic merit, come 
from this far eastern province of Persia, which even now extends 
from the borders of Irak Ajemi, in Central Persia, to Afghanistan, 
and from the Turkoman boundaries of Asiatic Russia, southward to 
the province of Kirman. Most of the western portion of Khorassan 
is desert, in the scattered oases of which only small villages are found. 
The greater part of the weaving is done in the hill country, along the 
northern and eastern borders. Fragments of many races populate 
the province — Iranians, Arabs, Turkomans, Kurds, and what not — 
and the fabrics therefore are of many sorts. The Iranian element is 
for the most part sedentary, and has assimilated many of the Arabs and 
Kurds. The Tartar tribes are wanderers, as they have ever been. 
The Afghans and Baluches who roam in numbers along the eastern 
and southeastern confines are robbers to the manner born, and prone 
to violence. 

The best varieties of Khorassan fabrics show something of the 
same opulence in design which is found in old Ispahan and Teheran 
carpets, though with more of the treatment of the Kirman rug previ- 
ously described. The works of the nomad classes are devoid of fine- 
ness, but like those of similar tribes in the Caucasus and Asia Minor 
are rich in bold effects, and durable beyond belief. In Khorassan 
both the upright and horizontal looms are used, also both methods of 
knotting. 

Khorassan Proper. — The realism which marks certain carpets of 
the Feraghan group is fairly outdone in many of the proper Khoras- 

218 



PERSIAN 

sans. There is, perhaps, not so much of poetic feeling apparent, but 
the floral designs are more interesting for the reason that passably 
successful effort is made to portray them in perspective. In draw- 
ing and coloring the floral masses with which the grounds are covered 
in some of the more pretentious Khorassans suggest European treat- 
ment. The largest and most difficult forms are undertaken, not only 
without much concession to Oriental decorative convention, but with 
evident intent to depict them as growing out of the ground. As 
compared with the flowers in the Teheran and Ispahan rugs, these 
are as exotics to the exuberant growths of the field. In brilliancy of 
color and general treatment they resemble somewhat the Kirmans ; 
but even where the central medallion is used the "painted panel" 
appearance of the Tabriz fabrics is absent. 

In some rugs lavish use is made of animal figures, birds and 
humans. They are all most brilliant in coloring and are drawn with 
much skill though in rather bad proportion. They are not repre- 
sented in motion, as is customary in the Teheran and Ispahan fabrics, 
but in the most photographic and everlasting of poses. A favorite 
device in these creations is the Persian heraldic emblem, a lion, sword 
in hand, with the great sun rising at his back. The geographical 
location of Khorassan and its history go far toward explaining the 
prevalence of many of the features in design. That part of the prov- 
ince in which the rug-making is almost wholly carried on lies in the 
main track of travel between Teheran and the East. Its cities have 
been for centuries the religious centres of Mohammedan Persia, al- 
though they have been taken and occupied at intervals by Mongol 
invaders. Nishapur, most important of these during the Middle 
Ages, and under one dynasty the capital, was the home of Omar 
Khayyam and other learned men whose writings have survived to our 
era and found translation into other languages. Thus, in close touch, 
with China, and yet a home of Persian culture, and withal famous 

219 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

for the industrial skill of its people, this one city alone must have 
had much to do with the establishment of the high type which pre- 
vails in the best of the Khorassan carpets even now. 

It would seem, however, that for a long time the superlative 
carpets of Khorassan had been made farther to the south. Bellew in 
his book, " From the Indus to the Tigris," says : 

" Birjand, the modern capital of the district of Ghayn, or Cayn, 
an open town of about two thousand houses, ... is the centre 
of a considerable trade with Kandahar and Herat on the one side, 
and Kirman, Yezd and Teheran on the other. It is also the seat of 
the carpet manufacture for which this district has been celebrated 
from of old. These carpets are called kalin, and are of very superior 
workmanship, and of beautiful designs, in which the colors are 
blended with wonderful harmony, and incomparable good effect. The 
best kinds fetch very high prices, and are all bespoke by agents for 
nobles and the chiefs of the country. The colors are of such delicate 
shades, and the patterns are so elaborate and tasteful, and the nap 
is so exquisitely smooth and soft, that the carpets are only fit for use 
in the divans of Oriental houses, where shoes are left without the 
threshold. The best kinds are manufactured in the villages around, 
and those turned out from the looms of Duroshkt Nozad enjoy a pre- 
eminent reputation for excellence. . . . 

" Sihdih, as the name implies, is a collection of three villages on 
the plain to which they give their name. Only one of these is now 
inhabited, the other two being in ruins. Very superior carpets are 
manufactured here, and they seem to fetch also very superior prices, 
to judge from those asked of us for some specimens we had 
selected. . . . 

" Ghayn exports its silks mostly to Kirman raw, but a good deal 
is consumed at home in the manufacture of some inferior fabrics for 
the local markets. The carpets known by the name of this town are 



PERSIAN 

not made here, but in the villages of the southern division of this 
district." 

The genuine Khorassan is not however, confined to large, 
showy designs. All of the more minute patterns in vogue among 
the artisans of the other districts of Persia are made use of by the 
people of the eastern province. The pear, the fish pattern, and the 
conventionalized floral devices recognized as belonging to the 
Persian decoration are frequent. In their use of the pear, the 
Khorassan weavers have devised a complex pattern of their own, 
which, though it has been adopted into other families, is looked 
upon as the property of the inventor. Two small pears in light color 
rest their narrow ends, or tops, upon a larger one, at right angles, so 
as to form a cross, the arms of which lie diagonally to the field of the 
carpet, and the repetition of the pattern makes of the small, light- 
colored pears a pronounced diagonal stripe throughout the entire 
area. The large, dark red pears are so arranged that their stripe is 
broken at regular intervals. At these points of fracture two of 
the large pears are placed side by side and a new stripe is begun. 
The smaller pear figures are jewelled with tiny patterns in bright color. 
A recurring perpendicular stripe is made by yet other and longer pear 
shapes, placed vertically between the cross patterns. The blue of the 
ground, showing between these groups, itself forms a horizontal 
stripe, and the effect of the whole is rich and striking. 

Sometimes the medallion is used, always covered with a skilfully 
arranged design in small figures. A pronounced waving vine is 
usually found in the main stripe of the border, drawn in white on a 
ground of dark red. Frequently, as a substitute for the rosettes, 
palmettes, and lotus buds common in Herati design, the pear groups 
are used. The narrow borders repeat the undulating effect, some- 
times in two vines on a blue field, or in some mixed pattern on a 
lighter ground. Where the body is filled with the great, rich flower 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

designs before mentioned the border usually presents a consistently 
large pattern composed of the established Assyrian elements. 

The knots of the old Khorassans are closely woven. The com- 
pactness which this insures makes the rug lie firmly, even on a highly 
polished floor, a virtue which looser fabrics have not. In length of 
pile the Khorassans vary, but in almost all lengths, even in some of 
the more closely trimmed examples, there is a peculiar appearance of 
surface, similar to that of rugs which have undergone wear, and in 
which the corrosive effect of certain dyes has begun to be apparent. 
It is most evident in pieces which have large patterns, and in which it 
is not necessary to bring out minute points of color. This uneven 
clipping adds to the softness given by the fine wool with which the 
rugs are napped. It gives to a carpet which has from a hundred and 
twenty-five to a hundred and fifty knots to the square inch, and in its 
foundations is excessively solid, the appearance of being fleece to the 
foot. This same peculiarity occurs in some varieties of antique India 
rugs. 

Through ignorance, probably, vendors often sell old Feraghans 
for the fine-patterned Khorassan. The Khorassan dyes have hither- 
to been to a laudable extent vegetable. Lately a new line of pro- 
ducts has been brought to this country, woven in the Feraghan 
pattern, but upon a red ground instead of blue, as is the custom in 
the real Feraghans. The foundations are cotton, but the weaving is 
compact and careful, better, in fact, than most of the modern proper 
Feraghans. The pile is not finished like the Feraghans, but is trim- 
med unevenly, after the Khorassan fashion. The dyes in these new 
fabrics leave much to be desired. 

Meshhed. — This, the capital of Khorassan, was once almost 
wholly a city of worship ; it holds the shrines of Imam Riza and 
Caliph Haroun al Raschid. It lies in the eastern part of the prov- 
ince, and for centuries has been the objective point of Mussulman 



PERSIAN 

pilgrimages from all over Asia, particularly by the Persians and others 
of the Shiite sect whose saints are entombed there. Thousands 
whose scant worldly store did not warrant them in making the jour- 
ney to Mecca have contented themselves and no doubt demonstrated 
their fidelity satisfactorily, by accomplishing the devotional trip to 
Meshhed.' It is really the most central place in Asia, a veritable 
hub, from which great highways, like the spokes of a wheel, run out 
in all directions. More or less weaving, some of it of the highest 
merit, has always been done in and about the city. Many rugs were 
brought, too, by the pilgrims as offerings, and a vast trade in textiles 
sprang up. Little by little Meshhed lost its religious tone. Its situa- 
tion made it a perfect emporium, a natural commercial centre. Its 
wonderful road system, by which it can be directly reached from any 
part of Asia, has been utilized more and more every year by caravans, 
until now it is one of the greatest marts in all the East. 

The rugs vended here are among the best that the Khorassan 
district knows. Traditionally they are rich and lustrous beyond 
measure. All the opulence of color and perfection of floral and ani- 
mal design that distinguishes the pure Khorassan is found in the rugs 
which bear the name of the Shiite Mecca. The chief features of the 
antiques are preserved, but the more modern fabrics, while they hold 
high rank even among the Persian loom works, have sacrificed much 
of artistic finish to strength and durability, and are now almost as 
substantial as the Herati or even the Kurdistan Sarakhs. They 
present as patterns the great cone or pear shapes, in larger form 
perhaps than any other rug. In the border these take the long form 

1 How great a multitude of rugs came into the possession of the mollahs is indicated by the 
statement of Dr. Bellew. He describes the vast graveyard at Meshhed to which, from all parts of 
Persia people brought the bones of their kinsfolk to be buried. " Prior to the famine," he says, "these 
interments amounted to forty thousand annually. After the great national disaster poverty caused a 
widespread neglect of the custom, and the number fell to something like twelve thousand. It has 
never returned to its former maximum since Meshhed, of late years, has taken on the character of a 
commercial centre." 

223 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

common to India and Kashmir; they are placed transversely and 
often alternated with the crossed arrangements described as a feature 
of the proper Khorassans. The designs in the most pretentious 
examples include also the animal forms, set in luminous colors upon 
the brightest of grounds. The pile is not trimmed in the uneven 
manner of the other Khorassans, but presents the smooth, compact 
surface common in the Herat, to which they are nearly related. In 
finish of ends and sides they follow the Khorassans. They are worked 
in the Ghiordes knot. 

Herat. — The state of facts which has seemed to warrant the 
classification of the Mosul fabrics with the Caucasian finds exact du- 
plication here, in the case of the carpets named for Herat, the City 
of a Hundred Gardens, which, from its strategic importance, has 
become famed world-wide as the " Key of India." Though now 
outside of the geographical confines of the Persian realm, it bears in- 
timate historical relation to Persia, and its carpets are allied in design 
and coloring to the Persian family of textiles, rather than to those of 
the Turkoman districts on the north, or the Mongolian on the east. 
The fish pattern, which has been referred to as prevailing in Ferag- 
han rugs, is in its purity known among experts as the Herat pattern. 
It seems tolerably clear that it originated neither in Herat nor in the 
Feraghan district, but was primarily a gift, in which two at least of 
the older civilizations contributed each its part. However that may 
be, the design, as a diaper for the body of the rug, and the accompa- 
niment recognized as the Herat border are preserved in their integ- 
rity in the modern Herat fabrics. The Herat border has been uti- 
lized, with more or less modification, in half the rug-making sections 
of the Orient. In many of the finest pieces in the European collec- 
tions it is used to enclose a central design of the purest Persian, the 
distinctive Persian character being maintained, as one authority 
points out, by the employment of dark red for the ground-color of 

224 




PLATE XXI 









Plate XXI. Tekke Prayer Rut; 

f-4 » 4 

Loaned by Mr. Ralph < >. Smith 

The octagonal device of the Turkoman weaving is familiar to almost every- 
one, so common, in fact, that it is reproduced in numberless machine-made fab- 
rics, the regularity of the pattern lending itself particularly well to mechanical 
repetition. Equally prevalent in Turkestan is this design for the pi 
pets. With some small variation as to coloring and border ornamentation it i> 
used by nearly all the weavers of the Turkoman steppes. The piece here shown 
has a band of lighter color in the ground at one end of the field, a quite unusual 
manifestation among the Tekke weavers, though frequent enough in the rugs of 
Kurdistan and parts of Caucasia. 



.■-;cO -. 



r^..GFl I3EI 



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-?r?:j f-^tiiH 



raci 











V 


v 


laaaaii 


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r t 


! 




. 


* 





^s- -*•"• 



-»^ p^- 



-Eg 



PERSIAN 

the central field, and a corresponding value of green for the ground 
of the border, a combination which seems to have enjoyed the high- 
est favor among the Persian masters. 

The majority of Herat rugs adhere religiously to the old de- 
sign, and whatever their dimensions are in every essential point, ma- 
terials, dyeing and weaving, unsurpassed by any which come out of 
the East. Aside from the recognized Herat pattern, almost the only 
other device used is the pear shape, repeated throughout the field 
after the manner of the Sarabands, save that the Saraband has the 
hook turned in opposite directions in the alternate rows, while in the 
Herati it is drawn uniformly. This seems to be employed only in the 
finest of the modern examples, and the elongated, gracefully curved 
shape of the patterns gives indication of the close relation which, by 
reason both of trade and conquest, has for centuries existed between 
India and the Afghan capital. When used for the field the pattern 
is often upon a ground of cream yellow or some other light shade, 
though the usual ground color is blue. In the border which accom- 
panies it, in these instances, the weavers retain the typical Herat 
forms. Although the fish patterns used in Feraghan and Herati are 
essentially identical, the latter is woven in the Ghiordes knot, the 
former in the Sehna. 

It is a common belief that the Herat rugs are woven in Khoras- 
san. The ground for this is without doubt the thoroughly Persian 
character of the fabrics, the knot being the only point of variance. 
In this connection it is important to know that the Herati do not 
speak of their country as Afghanistan, but always as Khorassan, a 
usage dating back to the time when the Persian sway was less cir- 
cumscribed than it is to-day. 

There is a coarse form of Herat carpet which is offered under 
the name of Aiyin, or Kayin. 



225 



XII 
TURKOMAN 

FROM the Caspian Sea to the Chinese frontier, and from the 
Sea of Aral to Afghanistan and Persia, stretches an immense 
territory, comprising thousands on thousands of square 
miles, and inhabited by numberless rug-making tribes. 

In the deserts and sand-hills of Turkestan, both east and west 
of the Oxus, and among the foot-hills of the Hissar and Turkestan 
Mountains, the rough, quarrelsome Turkomans, most of them under 
Russian rule now, make rugs which follow quite closely a general 
type, and which have attained a high degree of popularity as strong, 
well made, and serviceable. Some of them, too, are models of fine- 
ness and solidity. The wool used in them is of good quality. The 
lower grades of wool are made into heavy cloaks, tent-coverings and 
thick felts, all of which play a large part in the wild, outdoor life led 
by the Central Asian hordes. 

In considering these Turkoman weavings we encounter again the 
misunderstanding which has arisen in the case of so many rugs. The 
great majority of the Turkoman fabrics are accredited to Bokhara, 
and by that name are widely known in Europe and America. The 
plan adopted in this volume — of letting the accredited rug names 
stand for what they have stood for hitherto, instead of inviting the 

226 



TURKOMAN 

reader to learn a new distribution — is particularly harassing here, 
for what are called Bokharas in America are not Bokharas, and no 
one in Asia, save the most case-hardened rug vendor, understands 
what an American means by "Bokhara" rugs. On the way up the 
Black Sea I talked rugs to a Frenchman who for years had been 
" expediting " all sorts of Eastern carpets — Persian, Caucasian, Turk- 
oman and even bales from farther east. 

" Do you have any Tekkes in America ? " he asked. 

I told him I had heard the name applied to khilims, and to 
some coarse nomad weavings out of eastern Anatolia. 

"Oh, no!" he said. "That is not the Tekke. You must see 
the real Tekke of Turkestan. When we arrive in Russia I will 
show you some, but they are not for sale. All the veritable Tekkes 
are in private hands, and no one will part with them, for they have 
become very rare. Once in a while one is offered for sale, but the 
price is very, very high." 

When we reached Batoum I saw the Tekke — the "veritable 
Tekke." If it were displayed in a Broadway window, the rug mer- 
chants would declare it the finest Bokhara they ever saw. 

Before the Trans- Caspian railroad was built, the wild tribesmen 
of all that part of Turkestan, it seems, always took their rugs to Bo- 
khara for sale. When they reached Tiflis or Constantinople, which 
latter they did years ago by caravan to Trebizond, the rugs bore the 
name of the Turkoman capital from which they had been "expedited." 

That name has become fastened on them, and will not be 
changed. Tekke rugs, or their unworthy successors, will continue to 
be sold as Bokharas. But what is even more perplexing, under the 
circumstances, is that the carpets which are made in Bokhara itself, 
and far to the south and east of its confines, are the coarse, Brobdig- 
nagian forms of the Turkoman design which we know sometimes as 
Afghans and sometimes as Khivas. For the rest, the Samarkands 

227 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

and the Chinese weavings have been included in this group, not 
because they resemble the others in any respect (for they are es- 
sentially Mongol) but solely upon geographical grounds. 

"Bokhara" or Tekke. — In the whole range of Eastern fabrics 
there is probably no pattern which so conclusively identifies a textile 
as does the hard-and-fast division into squares and oblongs and the 
unvarying octagonal device which are the features of the so-called 
Bokhara. These rugs, which are now found in almost tiresome 
plenty, are made by the Tekke-Turkomans who inhabit the plains to 
the west of the Oxus, and who, until the Russians whipped them 
into something like civilized procedure, found their chief delight in 
stealing their fellow-men of all other races whenever opportunity 
offered, and, having tortured them for diversion, selling them into 
slavery. 

The Russian artist and traveller, Simakoff, who has been spoken 
of elsewhere, told in the all too meagre letter-press of his splendid 
book something of these Turkoman weavings. Each family or clan, 
he said, had its carpet design, as one has a sign manual. Nothing 
that could be offered could ever tempt them to weave any other. 1 
Several of the characteristic tribal designs he reproduced in his very 
interesting work. The particular conceit which in the West has 
come to be considered most thoroughly typical of Bokhara is one 
which when once seen cannot be forgotten. No matter in what 
minor details it may vary, one feature will proclaim it instantly. The 
lines of demarcation in the pattern are heavy and hard, and as true 



1 " Types des dessins les plus frequents dans les tapis des Tourkmenes. Ilsse distinguent par 
la finesse et le caractere serre du tissu, la solidite des couleurs, et 1'harmonie reposante des nuances. Ces 
dessins sont composes de figures fantastiques, formees de lignes droites, que ne rappellent ni des fleurs, ni 
des oiseaux, ni d'autres animaux. Les figures rappellant des oiseaux que Ton voit sur un fond d'octo- 
gones, dans le tapis 'a' ne se rencontrent qu'i l'etat d'exception. II en est de ces dessins comme de 
ceux sur les tapis e'troits ci-dessus mentionnes [the narrow strips used for friezes around the tent walls]; 
chaque famille Tourkmene a son dessin propre, qu'elle travaille et varie, mais a aucun prixelle ne vou- 
drait en executer un autre." — " L'Art deTAsit Centrale,'' far N. Simakoff. 

228 



TURKOMAN 

as those of a checker-board. The arrangement of the devices on 
these oblongs is also characteristic. A single figure does not lie 
within a single oblong, but on the intersection of the lines. Each 
quarter of it is in one corner of each four adjoining oblongs. The 
centre, usually filled with a diamond shape, marks the actual point 
of intersection. The pattern itself is an elongated octagon, divided in 
four parts by the lines referred to above. Inside of it lies a similar 
shape, the diagonally opposite quarters of which are colored alike, 
and in contrast with the alternating quarters. For example, one and 
three will be of red and brown, two and four of white and black. In 
the outer part these colors are reversed, which gives balance to the 
pattern. The ground of the rug and its dominant color throughout 
is red — kermes, madder, or glowing scarlet. The other colors are 
brown, black, blue, white and sometimes a shade of orange. All 
these are, however, thoroughly subordinated to the dominant reds. 
Some conventional diamond-shaped figure occupies the spaces be- 
tween the octagons. 

In some of the smaller pieces there is a complex border, the 
stripe effect of which is multiplied by many narrow lines of contrasting 
color, arranged after the fashion of the Chinese fret, between the 
broader stripes, which carry a definite pattern contrasting with the 
bold body of the carpet. The red-and-black effect is maintained, but 
lightness and brightness are imparted by the addition of small areas 
of orange and diminutive fillings of pale blue and white, and some- 
times, though rarely, of green. This border, which has much of the 
East Indian about it, is wider at the ends than at the side, and of a 
more broken design, usually suggesting some form of the tree of life. 

A feature of many Bokharas, shared by kindred fabrics, is the web, 
sometimes ten or twelve inches deep on the ends. It is a Turkish 
device, and has travelled with the race. In color it is similar to the 
pile in most antiques ; and through it, in most of the pieces, run 

229 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

narrow stripes, single or double, at intervals of two, three or four 
inches. They are blue or black and white. Instead of this there 
is sometimes a plain piled surface, running out clear to the small 
selvage and carelessly twisted fringe which finish the ends. In the 
small moderns the web is white. The rugs come in all sizes, though 
it is only within the last few years that they have reached real carpet 
dimensions. 

The prayer rugs differ entirely from the sedjadeh. Barring the 
borders, there is little to indicate that they are of the same variety ; 
but in each the type is strictly adhered to. The bold reds of the 
carpets are usually missing from the prayer rug, which, when of fine, 
antique quality, is soft, sedate, but indescribably rich. The cus- 
tomary color tone is mahogany, relieved with the wonderful deep 
copper bronze tint found in some few of the Beluchistans ; and the 
skilful, artistic use of the lighter shades gives to the variations of 
the design a lustre little short of marvellous. There is a multiplied 
tree pattern in the border, the high lights of which are in thin lines 
of pure white. The conformation of the arch and niche would be too 
heavy and severe if the coloring did not soften them so completely. 
The field design is of the same order as the borders, presenting in 
more elaborate but still rectilinear form the tree motive. Across the 
field, midway, runs a broad horizontal band, which, aided by a 
perpendicular, divides the whole area into four quite distinct parts, 
in each of which the tree appears. What the significance of this 
division may be it is hard to say. So plain in some points of the 
prayer rugs is the likeness to the Beluchistans that it is not wholly 
unreasonable to believe that the quartering, even though the fab- 
ric be Mohammedan, harks back in some way to the quadruplicate 
division which maintains throughout all the Vedic worship writings 
of India. 

It is worthy of note that the Bokharas are wider in proportion to 

230 



TURKOMAN 

length than most other prayer rugs, always excepting the Ladik and 
Bergamo. The only light color used in them, aside from the white 
and yellow and the orange values, is pale blue, in which the minute 
floral patterns are sometimes laid. The pile, which is woven in the 
Sehna knot, is trimmed very close in the old pieces, and the surface 
is fine and velvety. Very rarely a pure Bokhara is found with a 
field of blue instead of red. These are greatly prized. What are 
frequently sold in America as " Bilooz," or "blue Bokharas," are 
Beluchistan rugs, made in a blue tone instead of the reds and bronzes 
which prevail in most of their class. 

Many of the multitude of Turkoman designs of which Simakoff 
speaks could be seen up to a few years ago in Tiflis, whither the 
Turkestan bales were sent for redistribution ; but since the extension 
of the railway to Bokhara and Samarkand the Turkoman tribes can 
intrust their weavings to the freight agents at any point on the rail- 
way, with the knowledge that they will go straight through to the 
Constantinople dealers. The result is that in Tiflis, where ten or a 
dozen years ago good Tekke carpets could be had, there is now 
an utter dearth of them, and small fragments of the old rugs are 
deftly sewn together to make a piece as large, perhaps, as a prayer 
rug. For these patchwork affairs astounding prices are asked. 

It is impossible for any one to fix the right names and places of 
manufacture for the manifold weavings of Turkestan, unless, indeed, 
it be a native intimately acquainted with all the strolling companies 
scattered over that well-nigh boundless waste. . ,.,,. 

They differ in detail, but the fundamental parts of the design, as 
well as the general scheme of color, vary little. It is well to take 
what we know as Bokharas as a point to reckon from. There are 
designs which approach this very nearly, and there are others which, 
while following the color scheme and general arrangement, have 
eliminated many of the features. What some American dealers have 

231 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

chosen to call Khiva- Bokhara, for example, are identical with the 
Bokharas in knot, color and finish, and so nearly resemble them in 
pattern that at first glance they are easily mistaken for the Bokhara 
pieces. There are points of difference : first, the Khiva-Bokharas 
are inferior to the Bokharas in fineness. Superlative Bokharas have 
as many as two hundred knots or even more to the square inch, and 
a good specimen has a hundred and twenty. The best of the Khiva- 
Bokharas has not more than a hundred. Second, scrutiny reveals 
that the hard division into squares or oblong spaces which is the 
feature of the Bokharas is omitted from the other class or classes. 

In yet other pieces which have departed even more widely from 
what we have adopted as a standard design, animal figures are used 
to diversify the quarterings of the octagon, instead of the geometrical 
and quasi-floral shapes. This, there is little doubt, denotes that the 
rugs were woven by tribes making their home in the more westerly 
part of the plain. They have caught, though in a degree diminished 
by distance, the fashion of the Caucasus, so frequently illustrated in 
the Kabistan and Kazak rugs. They have adhered, however, rather 
strictly to the Bokhara traditions, and the rugs are a happy and con- 
venient medium between those formal fabrics and the less conven- 
tional weavings of the Yomuds. 

The " Bokhara pattern" has found greater popularity in America 
than any other of all the Turkoman lot. It is repeated and repeated 
in rugs great and small, which are sent to this country by thousands 
annually. In the majority of them, lately, the colors are bad. Effort 
to make antiques of some pieces by washing has reduced them from 
glowing reds to the palest of pinks. The market weavers have 
abandoned, apparently, the other designs, and yet the finest speci- 
men of Tekke weaving I saw presented an altogether different pat- 
tern — one which was based upon the diamond shape, after the style 
of the Yomuds, and not on the square and octagon. These were the 

232 



TURKOMAN 

carpets of which my fellow-voyager had spoken. They had an 
incredible number of knots to the inch, a surface fine as velvet, and 
while thin and flexible, almost, as paper, were strong, and in their 
design and texture perfect. 

Dealers offer to sell what are known as " Royal Bokharas." 
If there were any " Royal Bokhara," it would be the kind I have just 
mentioned, and they are made no more — and probably never will be. 

Yomud. — There is one variety of the Turkoman weavings 
which carries upon its face indisputable proof of its origin. Its de- 
signs tell where it was woven. 

Away at the western end of Turkestan, scattered over plains, 
along the shores of the Caspian and in the foot-hills of the mountain 
chain which has for a time stopped, nominally, the southward march 
of the Russian, dwells the great Yomud horde of Turkomans. There 
are, perhaps, no rugs which from an ethnological standpoint are more 
interesting than theirs. They are satisfying, not more by reason of 
their warm color, admirable weaving and neat, cleanly defined pat- 
terns than because in every minutest particular they are what one 
observing the geographical position of the Yomud territory must 
expect them to be. Following religiously, on one hand, the color, 
textile traditions and general theory of the Tekke folk, with whom 
they are by race, customs and political affinity allied, the Yomud 
weavers have yet reached out across the Caspian to their near neigh- 
bors of Daghestan, Derbend, Kuba and the Shirvan district, and 
borrowed for the borders of their rugs and the adornment of the pure 
Turkoman figures all the elements and decorative tricks which distin- 
guish the fabrics of these parts. With a skill of which they might 
scarcely be suspected, they have perfected in these praiseworthy 
carpets an adaptation, or better, an amalgamation of patterns, in ideal 
accord with the outline of the process as given in the chapter on 
Design. 

233 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

The task has been simplified by the fact that the decorative 
quantities with which they have had to deal, on both sides, are purely 
rectilinear ; nevertheless a great obstacle lay in the way, in the mat- 
ter of coloration. To so temper the uncompromising blood-reds of 
the Bokharas on the one hand, and the bright yellows and blues of 
the Caucasians on the other, that there should be peace and harmony 
in the finished carpet, was a labor for masters. It has been accom- 
plished in masterly manner. To judge by the side borders alone, 
one might reasonably say, looking at some of the Yomud rugs, that 
they had come from the Shirvan or Daghestan looms. And yet the 
end borders and the body of the rugs are Turkoman. In some cases 
the colors follow the red schedule of the Tekkes ; in others that is 
mellowed almost to an old rose, to meet and harmonize with the alien 
hues of the Caucasus. They retain the striped red web and the long 
fringe of goat's-hair ; they retain in general the Tekke division, but it 
is in the drawing of the Caucasus. The latch-hook is everywhere. 
In many cases there is a broad white or wool-colored stripe at the 
outer edge of the web on the ends, and in it, oftentimes, a small out- 
line border pattern, embroidered in red yarn. Occasionally the fringe, 
instead of being left loose all the way across the end of the rug, is 
twisted at irregular intervals of from three to eight inches into stout 
ropes like those of the Kazaks. Between these the warp-threads of 
goat's-hair lie loose. 

In the majority of Yomuds the pattern is an array of diamond 
shapes, distributed upon the field in the Turkoman order, but 
equipped inside and out with the latch-hook. In the borders, too, 
Caucasian hand-marks are apparent. There is the stiff form of the 
swaying vine. Where it crosses from one side to the other it is 
heavy with latch-hooks. Where it lies parallel with the sides it is 
nothing but the barber-pole stripe found in nearly all the Transcau- 
casian fabrics, and in so many Kabistans. Even in the rugs in which 

234 



TURKOMAN 

it may be held to have originated, this stripe does not play a more 
important part than in the Yomuds. It furnishes both broad and 
narrow elements for the sides and in the end borders ; it figures as 
trunk in the tree patterns, the branches of which are composed of a 
form of latch-hook. 

There is one feature which seems to be wholly the property of 
the Yomuds. It is a coarse side selvage of two ribs, which, instead 
of being wholly red, has alternate squares of red and blue, red and 
brown, or two shades of red, in each rib, so that a sort of checker- 
board effect is secured. Even when the rugs are piled out to the last 
thread of warp (body finish,) this is preserved in the pile. The nearest 
approach to anything of the sort, in any other rug, is the selvage of 
red, white and blue at the ends of the Shiraz, but that is worked in 
the Soumak stitch, while the selvage of the Yomuds is in the khilim 
or tapestry stitch. The piling of the Yomuds may be either in the 
Sehna or Ghiordes knot. 

One division of these Turkoman carpets, which avoids on the 
one hand close adherence to the Bokhara device, and on the other 
the latch-hook style of the Yomuds, is called Beshir. In the matter 
of web and fringe it follows the example of the rest of the group, but 
the web is more generously adorned with stripes than in any of the 
other varieties. The patterns manifest somewhat more of the Arab 
character, but the manner of arranging them upon the field is still 
that of Bokhara. A feature of the border is the " reciprocal saw- 
tooth," the sechan disih of the Persians. 

Afghanistan-Bokhara. — Another interesting although perplex- 
ing feature of the confusion in which these rugs of Middle Asia have 
become involved is that what we have been wont to purchase as 
Afghan carpets are really the product of Bokhara, though they are, 
naturally enough, made also by the dwellers in northern Afghanistan, 
on the slopes of the Hindu Kush and all along the Bokhara border. 

235 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

They are great, coarse carpets with the Bokhara octagon device 
much enlarged, and without the dividing-lines which make the field 
of the finer fabrics look like a decorated checker-board. Though on 
a greater scale, they are more after the order of the Khivas, and have 
been commonly sold under that name. All of boldness, all of wild 
force, that is read or imagined of the dwellers in these stern uplands, 
finds record and expression in the Afghan carpets. They are fierce 
and full of character. The spirit of the mountains and gorges is in 
them. The gloom of wind-swept highlands is over them. They are 
of a dark, savage red, or rather of two reds — one with an ugly 
suggestion of blood in it, the other darker and more sombre, dulled 
by the admixture of indigo almost to brown. 

The patterns, great and grim and impressionistic, are thrown in 
with much freedom and energy. Dashes of white, positive to a 
degree, but minute in such a desert of grimness, only emphasize the 
rude grandeur of the fabrics. The border is crude, but in it is 
recorded the finer spirit of the people. Whatever there is in them 
of leaning toward civilization and the politer arts has its expression 
here. Outside of this, formed by the ends of the goat's-hair warp, 
is a long, straying, ashen-brown fringe, suggesting the beard of the 
Cossack. Some pieces — the minority — are wrought out in lighter 
shades, but the ratio between the values is still justly maintained. 
The web takes on a brighter tone and better finish as the colors of 
the pile grow brighter ; the fringe is a lighter gray. The consistency 
of it shows a certain artistic impulse strong in the nature of the 
people. Other examples manifest a leaning to orange and bits of 
light blue. In some the squares are resumed, some of them being 
laid in orange, others in rich green. The borders grow in com- 
plexity, and flower patterns creep in ; but at the brightest they are 
in harsh contrast with the flower-strewn carpets of the Persian or 
the brilliant panels of the Caucasian. 

236 



TURKOMAN 

The Afghans are sometimes made of goat's-hair and some- 
times of wool. The warp is of brown wool or the coarser hair of the 
goat. Spinning these filaments is a difficult task. When wet they 
curl so tightly that they cannot be spun at all ; therefore the hair is 
not always washed, but after the shearing is carefully combed. There 
sometimes remains in a warp made of this thread a strong odor 
which it is quite difficult to remove. 

The nomad products of Afghanistan itself show a diversity which 
quite entitles them to a separate classification, after setting apart the 
Herat carpets, which have been placed with the Khorassan group of 
Persia, and most of which are to-day really made in Persia. Perhaps 
the most singular, as they are the rarest, of these " independent " Af- 
ghan fabrics are made by the Turkoman tribes dwelling in the defiles 
of the Barkhut Mountains, the gateway through which is the renowned 
Pass of Herat. Their rugs are a positive announcement of their 
position on the map, for they have borrowed the design, fish pattern 
and all, from the Herati, but have wrought it out in the colors of 
their kinsmen and neighbors on the north. The relationship, the 
strong general likeness of the fabrics in color and theory of contrast, 
and finally that they are both worked in the Sehna knot while the 
Herati use the Ghiordes, would perforce lead to placing these rugs 
in the same class as the Tekkes. This version of the Herat pattern 
is wholly rectilinear. The leaves which inclose the rosette are like 
bent spear-heads, and the flowers and stalks are stiff to the last 
degree. Aside from the blood-red of the ground and the dark brown 
or blue which is used to outline the patterns, there is small show of 
any color in the body of the rug. In the borders there is more life. 
The pattern here, usually a great, indented octagon, combined with 
some form of the tree, is adorned with several bright colors, orange, 
light blue and the like. Its lines are plainly copied from the old 
Beluchistans. 

237 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

These weavers seem to have caught from the Herati, too, the 
notion of magnitude. The carpets are meant for chef-d'ceuvres, and 
are pretentious affairs. Some of them are twenty feet or more in 
length. Until the manufacture of whole carpet sizes in the Bokharas 
was begun, — after the railway had opened the wilds of Turkestan 
to commerce, — these Afghan fabrics were far and away the largest 
of all the Turkoman carpets. They have the broad web at the ends. 
Some of them have coarse goat's-hair for warp, and the pile contains 
sufficient of the soft goat's-fleece to give them a lustre like to that 
of the finest of the Tekke fabrics. 

Throughout the southern ranges of Afghan hills, down as far as 
Kandahar, rugs similar to these are woven, all copying in some meas- 
ure from the Persianized patterns of Herat and Khorassan, but 
adhering to the stiff, rectilinear treatment found in Turkestan and 
Beluchistan carpets. Many of them have the Beluchistan coloring 
instead of the Bokhara red. All these are without doubt the fabrics 
referred to by Mr. Robinson in his "Eastern Carpets" thus: "The 
weavers of these particular carpets are not able to give the floral 
patterns they use their true forms ; and the explanation of their 
inability to do so probably lies in the fact that they are a Turanian 
people, settled among Aryan neighbors, by whom they have not yet 
been completely Aryanized." 

Beluchistan. — The rugs of Beluchistan, ever since rugs began 
to be an article of commerce, have been brought laboriously across 
the rugged reaches of Afghanistan to find market in the Turko- 
man cities. They are of many types. Some of them are of no type, 
embodying features from more than one form of decoration. They 
have not escaped the general decadence. The modern Beluchistans 
have fallen about as far from the high standard established by the 
old ones as any rugs which find their way out of the East to-day. It 
is not surprising, for the production is enormous, and even the 

238 



TURKOMAN 

coarsest and poorest of these are stable and full of "wear." This 
modern stuff from Beluchistan is nearly all made on one model, with 
some small diversity in color and less in design. The old rugs were 
in many forms, and although the colors differed according to the 
influence under which each piece or collection of pieces was wrought, 
there was always a depth and luminous quality in the dyes, a lustre 
in the wool, which, with certain textile peculiarities which never 
seemed to be omitted, made them easy of recognition. That they 
should have maintained any fidelity at all to pristine design is sin- 
gular when the geographical location and history of the country are 
considered. On one side they have the Kirman province, where the 
old Iranian creed and textile methods are still preserved ; on the 
northwest is Khorassan, with its rich floral fabrics, bright in color 
and full of realism ; to the north is Afghanistan, whose principal 
carpets, from the earliest times to the present day, have retained 
the most perfect Persian character, and have, as a matter of fact, 
been sold as Persians ; on the east, India, where Persian models 
have for at least three hundred years been followed with scrupulous 
fidelity. 

This little four-cornered country has been constantly traversed 
through all the centuries by Greek, Arabic, Persian and Mongol in- 
vaders of India, and by the great caravan trade which long before the 
Christian era was carried on between India and the Mediterranean 
coast. Still the Beluchistan fabrics have preserved a system of design 
and coloring which bears little resemblance to any other of the East. 
There is found now and then among the Yuruks of Asia Minor a rug 
which in general tone, patterns and principal colors forcibly suggests 
the Beluchistans. 

Ethnologists are at a loss to determine the derivation of the 
Beluchees and Brahoes, who inhabit Beluchistan, having long ago 
wrested it from the Hindus. They are generally believed to have 

239 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

come from Syria or Arabia, but in the turbulent course of time the 
stock has been replenished by wandering tribes of Kurds, and even 
large bodies of Grecian adventurers are known to have settled there 
and ingrafted themselves permanently upon the population. It is sig- 
nificant that the Beluchistan weavers use the Sehna knot. Aside 
from this there is small trace of Persian influence in their weaving. 

The predominating influence in Beluchistan for several hundred 
years has been Turkoman. The chronicles of invasion show it, and 
there are corroborative marks which still abide in the textiles. Occa- 
sionally a piece is found which while borrowing something from the 
Chinese, with whom the Beluchees have always had caravan com- 
munication, follows in a general way the Tekke arrangement and also 
the Turkestan theory in coloring, while preserving in its finishing the 
Beluchistan marks. 

All the Beluchistan rugs are heavy in tone. Where the principal 
figures are laid in madder or deep blues, they have a richness not 
surpassed. The greater number of them, in the American market at 
least, are of a brown cast The range of colors is narrow. Few 
bright ornamental figures appear, though orange and some light 
shades of red are sparingly used. The rug in such cases takes on a 
brown key, and the design, which invariably has a certain ruggedness 
about it, is drawn simply, in lighter shades of the same. Brightness 
and accent are sometimes secured by working the outlines of the 
patterns in orange or a yellowish white. Most of the figures are 
big hexagons, octagons, — all sorts of loose geometrical devices, — 
ornamented inside and out with broad lines and keys in parallel 
arrangement, which emphasizes the rectilinear effect. The field in 
many Beluchistans is divided into two or three parts by transverse 
stripes of the same character. Sometimes, in the old rugs, these fig- 
ures are woven in floral form, suggesting garlands. The derivation 
of the treatment is not clear. 

240 



TURKOMAN 

The pile is quite long and compact. The ends have a web like 
that of the Bokharas, extending sometimes ten or twelve inches beyond 
the pile. This, figured in colors or worked in a minute diaper pat- 
tern, makes a most artistic finish. 

Although in point of propinquity these carpets might naturally 
enough be counted among the India fabrics, the rug dealers and rug 
makers of the peninsula do not so consider them. Even the wool of 
Beluchistan is not, as a rule, taken for the modern India carpets, since 
most of it is of a dark hue, and experiments have failed to make it 
take on the light colors required in the India designs. Bleaching, 
which has been industriously tried, serves only to impair its quality. 
Perhaps this has had much to do with the long preservation of dis- 
tinctive character in the Beluchistans, a character which makes them 
easy of identification, even among a multitude of other fabrics. The 
weavers have made of necessity a virtue which has redounded greatly 
to their credit and to their advantage as well. They have utilized 
the dark natural hues of the wool, and attained additional depth, 
lustre and softness from a free admixture of goat's-fleece, which is 
produced in plenty in their mountains. 

Samarkand. — The rugs named for the city which was the capital 
of the conqueror Tamur, and which is now his burial-place, are in 
numberless characteristics eloquent of Mongol influence. Most of 
them show only the smallest trace of Persian or Caucasian form. 
The central field, to begin with, is usually covered over with the intri- 
cate Chinese fret, laid in some shade of red or blue on a ground of 
some other value, or red on blue, or vice versa ; sometimes it is in a 
pale tint of fawn brown on a background of yellowish white. Dis- 
tributed in this area are medallions, one, two, three, four or five, — 
seldom more, — in which sometimes appear Chinese devices, such as 
the dragon, fish or pheasant, and sometimes flowers. These medal- 
lions are round or polygonal. Occasionally there is a single large 

241 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

one in the centre, and rectilinear floral forms appear about it. In the 
borders the fret is further utilized in various shapes and colors, or 
there are decorative symbols of animal origin but floral form, which 
alone bear the mark of Persian treatment. Yellow predominates in 
the borders, giving the fabric a warm tone. 

In many of the rugs of Samarkand the fretted field and its me- 
dallions have been abandoned for an attempt at floral display, but the 
rich, almost lurid coloring remains ; the reds and yellows, and in a 
smaller degree the blues, in which these flowery fields are wrought, 
are superb. But amid the profusion there always creeps in some feat- 
ure reminiscent of the old pattern. In most cases it is the largest of 
the flower forms, which stand out so straight, so heavy, so prominent, 
so octagonal, that they utterly obscure the accompanying patterns, 
and, stripped, before the mind's eye, of all the stems and leaves which 
surround them, are naught but the old figures after all. 

It is to be noted, in connection with this Mohammedan floral de- 
velopment in the rugs of Samarkand, that upon the taking of Baghdad 
and other Western cities the Mongol ruler took back with him to his 
capital the greatest artists and artisans, in the hope of instilling a new 
art impulse into his people. The elaboration noticeable even in the 
present day in many of the Samarkand carpets must be considered a 
remote result of that effort. 

The borders of the Samarkands carry two main stripes, of me- 
dium width. One usually presents the undulating vine in more or 
less angular form ; the other, a lotus pattern, three flowers on a stem, 
which calls to mind the similar formation in the old Ghiordes border. 
All around the outside of the rug is usually a narrow band of some 
solid color. In nearly all the Samarkands four threads of the weft, 
which is of cotton or brown wool, are carried across after every 
row of knots, as in the Kazaks. The warp is usually of cotton. 
The knot is Sehna. The ends are finished with a narrow web 

242 



TURKOMAN 

and loose warp-ends. Sometimes the broad Turkoman web is em- 
ployed. 

Armenian dealers often apply to the Samarkand rugs the name 
of " Malgaran," mentioned heretofore as a common substitute title for 
Tcherkess and Mingreli. The confusion arises partly from the 
tenacious belief that Mingreli is a corruption of Mongolian. 

Yarkand and Kashgar. — Little is heard in American markets 
of the rugs of Yarkand and Kashgar. They are exported from Asia 
through Peking, and a few examples have found their way to Constan- 
tinople with other consignments, and have been picked up by American 
buyers there. Of late there has been a considerable influx of these 
fabrics to American markets. The Yarkand district is somewhat out 
of the way of the Persian influence. The city is a hundred miles or 
more east of Kashgar. It is well aloof in a southeasterly direction 
from both Bokhara and Samarkand, being eight hundred miles from 
one and six hundred miles from the other. After the shaking off of 
Chinese rule and the establishment of an East Turkestan empire, with 
capital at Kashgar, Yarkand became an important trade centre, but 
on the death of Yakub Beg in 1877, Kashgar was again taken by the 
Chinese, and Yarkand reverted to the old sovereignty. Cut off by 
such a stretch of wild upland country from the trade centres of the 
West, and with the Great Pamir and other vast mountain ranges tow- 
ering between it and the markets of India, Yarkand for a long time 
escaped the demoralization which had attacked most of the rug-mak- 
ing districts. Mr. Robinson found its fabrics many years ago at 
Srinagar in Kashmir, along with some of the weavings of Thibet. 
He described the old examples as being made with silky wool, taken 
probably from the yak. " The quality of these rugs," he adds, " is 
admirable, and the colors harmonious, the designs having a Tartar 
character in the geometrical figures, circles, medallions and octagons, 
alternately blue, red, green and yellow — the green of an emerald 

243 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

hue, obtained by dyeing strongly with Persian berry over in- 
digo." 

It is plain that either the quality of these carpets has declined 
amazingly, or that those which Mr. Robinson saw were show-pieces 
and far superior to the average, for the consignments which have 
come to America during the past two years have presented little that 
was attractive. Consistency is their chief merit Interest in them is 
based principally on their oddity. They are nothing if not Chinese. 
They show no trace of the Western influence noticeable in the Samar- 
kands, no indication of effort at floral diapers. The fretted grounds 
are most frequent. The circles and octagons, with their Chinese em- 
blems, are a multitude. Dragons and fishes and variations of the fret 
are everywhere. In some pieces the medallions, instead of being 
large and few in number, are small, contain a wonderful diversity of 
figures, and are distributed, more or less regularly, all over the field. 
A favorite form is the combination of four dragons, so arranged that 
they form a swastika. The entire filling in some examples is made 
up of realistic animals. 

The border space is small in proportion to the size of the rug. 
There are usually three stripes, a broad middle stripe, with a guard 
stripe on either side, but the guard stripes are not figured alike, as 
is customary in Persian or Turkish rugs where the borders are simi- 
larly distributed. In most cases there is some form of the Chinese- 
Greek border, most frequently of two meanders, so intertraced as to 
form swastikas at intervals, and so shaded as to present the ma- 
terial effect of relief. The narrower stripes are adorned with some 
fret forms or Chinese floral conceits. 

The colors are garish, and, though in some cases brilliant, are 
not warm nor attractive. Pale terra-cotta, tending to pink, is common. 
Some rugs are made up of grayish white and yellows ; others present 
only white with two shades of blue, suggesting delft. The greens 

244 



PLATE XXII 






ni '// 

loo) ov/j-yjiidj yd rfj) 

■ 

ftoq 

toqiLj /all no dqci^ou ■ . 

-bnurf t(;i. 



Plate XXII. Tur. Ardebii Mosque Carpet 

32.0 x 16.0 

Considering that the actual size of the Ardebii carpet, which is now in 
the South Kensington Museum, is sixteen feet in width by thirty-two feet 
in length, the enormously reduced representation here offered preserves quite 
well the essential features. Beyond question the Persian masterpiece of the six- 
teenth century, made for the tomb of Sheikh Ismael, is to-day the most famous 
piece of weaving in the world. The fabulous fineness of its workmanship, and 
the accuracy of its design, may be proven by selecting at random any flower upon 
either side of the field ; examination will discover its companion-piece in 
the same relative position on the opposite side. A monograph on this carpet 
was published by Edward Stebbing in London in 1893, in folio, with hand- 
painted plates, which showed its splendid color effects. 



TURKOMAN 

and yellows are of the lemon order. There is some vermilion and 
orange in the figures. 

As to texture : the material is coarse wool, the pile about the 
medium length of that in the Demirdji carpets ; the warp is of four- 
strand cotton ; the weft is thrown across four threads at a time, 
as in the Samarkands ; the sides have a selvage built upon two 
threads of the warp, and the ends are finished with the loose warp- 
threads. 



245 



XI II 

KHILIMS 

TMfE hard, smooth coverings known as khilims (double-faced) 
are exported in large quantities from different parts of the East, 
and are of such thoroughly Oriental character as to entitle 
them to a prominent place in consideration; but their scope in the 
matter of execution is so limited, they follow type so closely, that there 
is no call, and indeed no latitude, for exhaustive discussion of them. 
In many respects there are no carpets made in the East which are 
more attractive than genuinely good khilims. There they have been 
employed as floor-coverings from the very earliest times ; in America 
they are used for portieres and covers. The artistic skill shown in 
them consists in the novel adjustment of colors. So deft are the 
Eastern weavers in this that two rugs of the selfsame design, but with 
colors differently distributed, look utterly unlike, and will pass for 
altogether dissimilar conceits. The hues are broad and in some 
degree crude. The treatment is wholly rectilinear, but harmony and 
softness of effect are secured in most of the khilims by projecting a 
series of rectangular extensions from one body of color upon that 
adjoining, as in Daghestan, Soumak and other Caucasian piled rugs. 
This peculiar but most effective edging does not interfere in the 
least with the design. It is as complete as though its outlines were 

246 



KHILIMS 

smooth and direct instead of being broken by such numberless serra- 
tions and indentations. Indeed, when it is considered how confusing 
these irregularities are, the skill of the designer and weaver seem 
magnified fourfold. To one unfamiliar with the fabrics the serration 
and diversification seem paramount. It is only when viewed from a 
distance, where the unity of the design may be seen and the soften- 
ing effect of these notched edges understood, that the comprehensive 
beauty of the khilims is apparent. This singular factor, which rather 
engrosses attention at first, is only the skilful means to an end; but 
it accomplishes its mission so well that it seems to be the ruling 
motive of the fabric, and it creates in the khilims some subtle force 
of fascination which precludes their ever becoming wearisome. And 
to heighten even further the efficacy of the square-notched edges, the 
weaver puts in at the end of each of the reciprocal projections a tiny 
patch or line of some third color, often woven into ornamental shapes. 
At first inspection this escapes the eye ; it is only when one wonders 
how these uncomplementary colors can join in such a restful ensemble 
that this fine device is discovered. The small patterns are usually 
outlined all about, in the same fashion and with the same purpose. 
It is doubtful if such an array of startling colors, in such large areas, 
could be combined in any other way without palling. The necessity 
for some such trick as this, in working out the khilim design and color 
scheme, suggests itself at once. In the first place, they are smooth- 
surface carpets, and so devoid of all the softening effects which natu- 
rally come from the use of pile. The yarn of which they are woven 
is twisted so that it is harder and more linen-like than any wool yarns 
used in the pile carpets, and makes, where entirely different colors 
are brought close to one another, the most severe line of demarcation. 
The method, or stitch, is calculated to emphasize this harshness. 

It is probable, from the general character of the stuffs, that the 
khilims present more nearly the primitive fashion of weaving — work- 

247 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

ing out with weft-threads of different colors, by passing them around 
the warp, the patterns which in most Eastern fabrics are produced by 
knotting. 1 

Sellers of rugs rarely go to the pains of distinguishing between 
the several varieties of khilims, and indeed it may be difficult to do so, 
save in the case of the Sehnas, which differ radically from all the 
rest. In everything except the difference of method they are exact 
reproductions of the Sehna piled rugs, and can be identified by the 
description given of the Sehnas under the head of Persian Fabrics. 
The designs and colors are the same, and in point of fineness they as 
far excel the other khilims as the Sehna piled products do the rugs 
of Karabagh or Shirvan. 

Aside from them, nearly all the khilims offered for sale in America 
are comprised in four classes — Kurdish, Shirvan, Merv, and Tekke 
or Karamanian. The Karamanian and sometimes the Kurdish are 
made in two sections and sewed together afterward. The discrep- 
ancy between the two sides, where parts of the pattern are supposed 
to unite at the seam, is greater or less, but rather adds to the interest 
in the fabric than detracts from it. The Kurdish khilims are made all 
through Kurdistan, but those from the Persian side of the border 
show more of finish. The Karamanians are mostly woven by Yuruks 
and Turkomans in the Sanjak of Tekke in old Cappadocia, along the 
plateaus of the Taurus. The population is mixed, but Turkomans 
predominate. Some khilims which bear the name Karamanian are 
also woven by Christian women in the towns. 

The Kurdish and Karamanian khilims differ chiefly in point of 



1 " As velvet probably originated in Central Asia, and certainly felt, I think it very likely that 
there also the Turkish tribes first developed the art of sewing tufts of wool on the strings of the warp 
of the carpets they had learned to make from the Persians, and that the manufacture of these piled 
carpets was thus introduced by the Saracens into Europe from Turkestan through Persia. The Turks 
were driven to the invention by the greater coldness of their climate." — Birdwood: " Industrial Arts 
of India. " 

248 



K H I L I M S 

coarseness. The Kurdish are finer. There are noticeable in both, 
and also, in a lesser measure, in the Sehnas, small open spaces at the 
edges of some figures, where one figure ends on a certain warp- 
thread, and the adjoining one begins on the next. The uniting 
stitches of a third color referred to above are omitted, and the multi- 
tude of open spaces thus left makes the design seem like a loose 
insertion. In the heavy pieces known as kis khilims, or winter 
spreads, these gaps are less frequent, the aim being to make the 
fabric as compact as possible. 

The patterns are chiefly the geometrical ones of Turkestan and 
the Caucasus, but though some of the Persian and Arabic ornamental 
forms appear, all are worked out in a manner peculiar to themselves. 
Many seemingly intentional irregularities are found. Where, for 
example, some figure is to be repeated several times in white, it is 
woven once or twice in cotton, while all the rest are in wool ; or where 
two or more small variegated patterns balance each other, and seem 
at first to be alike, examination shows that the weaver, evidently out 
of sheer caprice, has made some curious difference between them. 

The border stripes are not, as a rule, the same all the way 
around the fabric, as is customary in most of the piled rugs. The 
stripe patterns across the ends are different from those along the 
sides, like those of most Turkoman carpets, and the rotation of colors 
is by no means regular. There is much latitude for the exercise 
of individual whim in the khilims, and the weavers avail themselves 
of it to the full. 

In the Merv fabric the number of open spaces is reduced to a 
minimum. Instead of making the patterns rectangular, and ending on 
the perpendicular line of the warp, where a gap must be left or the 
additional labor of joining be incurred, the defining lines of the figure 
run diagonally, the projections are more pointed, the gap in the web 
is avoided, and the carpet gains greatly in compactness. 

249 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

In design these Merv khilims, some of which are of great 
size, are not so startling as the Kurdish and Karamanian. The 
garish colors are few ; the white is more sparingly applied. The field 
is usually divided transversely into three or four parts, by ornate line 
patterns. The designs strongly suggest the Beluchistan rugs in this 
regard. The high lights, as in the Beluchistans, are found in the 
border — white lines, serrated, very pronounced, running sometimes 
the entire length of the fabric, with small geometrical devices worked 
in the angles. 

The methods of weaving are much alike in all the khilims thus 
far named. The work is done with shuttles, on which the weft- 
threads are wound. By passing them the colors are carried in and 
out across the warp, making an even, corded surface, the " grain " 
of which is the warp itself. Whole figures of the pattern are woven 
separately. It is this that causes the open spaces between them. 
The Shirvan khilims follow in general the Daghestan idea of 
design. 

The Persians have a khilim known as doru, woven in simple 
stripes all the way across the field. It is made in manner similar to that 
of the Kurdish and Karamanian. In Turkestan there is made what is 
known as the Bokhara khilim, which is an altogether different thing. 
A web is woven in the deep Bokhara red color ; upon this is embroi- 
dered with thread and needle the characteristic Bokhara design. In 
Shirvan the same thing is done ; all through Turkey, in fact, are 
made these djijims, following the rug patterns in vogue in their re- 
spective localities. They resemble the khilims but little, and should 
properly be classed with the Baghdad portieres. Among the Kurds 
and Karamanians, but rarely among the Persians or the people of 
Merv, the khilims are woven in the form of prayer rugs. The niche 
in the Karamanian and Kurdish prayer khilims is patterned after 
the Ghiordes. 

250 



KHILIMS 

Khilims have of late been extensively made in Servia, Bosnia 
and other parts of Turkey in Europe. 

In many parts of the Orient a fabric called tzou I or tzul is made 
of coarse wool or goat's-hair and in the khilim stitch, but with no 
effort at design, except in some cases stripes of the several natural 
shades of the hair. It is strong, durable and sometimes water-proof. 
It is the burlaps, the tent-canvas, the horse-blanket, the grain-sack, 
the travelling-bag — in short, the universal handy wrapping material 
of the East. It is also used as a filling on floors, and the gay-colored 
rugs are placed upon it, gaining in brightness by contrast with its 
dull shades. Among the Karamanians in eastern Anatolia it is cus- 
tomary to work some lively designs upon these tzouls with the needle. 



*5J 



XIV 
INDIA 

WITH the barely possible exception of two or three varie- 
ties, the Indian carpets sold to-day are wholly modern 
creations. The antique fabrics, many of which were 
admirable, are no longer to be had and scarcely to be seen, least of all 
in American markets. Such of the genuine old-time examples as re- 
mained after the English exploitation of Indian arts and industries 
were obtained by English and European collectors, and have disap- 
peared from view. The East India Company, owner of most of the 
good ones, sold them, and so eagerly were they taken up that even 
the British museums were in the end unable to secure such specimens 
as would have been desirable. The industrial development of India 
under English rule dissipated the old methods so rapidly that within 
twenty-five years after the first public exhibition of these fabrics in 
London, in 1851, the carpet product had become entirely altered in 
character. 

There are preserved in the museum at Jeypore a number of the 
old India carpets found at the time of the British occupation. All 
give proof of Persian derivation. The story of carpet-making in 
India, and in truth of all Indian arts, dates practically from the 
supremacy of Akbar in the sixteenth century. There is small doubt 

252 



PL A' 













■ 





















■ 




Plate XXIII. Y<>\mi> Turkoman 

Property of the Author 

While this rug, by reason of the old rose tint of its ground color in certain 
lights, must be classed as a Yomud, there is a certain paucity of coloration in 
the border, to wit, an absence of yellows and blues and other shades prevalent 
in the Caucasus, which makes it likely that it was woven among the Akhal 
or Salor Turkomans, or some tribe a little remote from the Caspian coasts. 
The central design, however, with its tendency to an ornate and picturesque 
diamond device instead of one bounded only by the hard octagon of the 
Bokhara, so-called, shows that the carpet is not a product of any of the eastern 
Turkoman provinces. It is a sterling rug and the extreme accuracy with which 
the patterns are wrought predicates at once the fineness of texture— which it 
has — and skill on the part of the weaver. There is a suggestion of vine and 
flower in the latch-hook and tarantula arrangement of the border stripes. 



INDIA 

that by reason of previous invasion the Persian manufacture and use 
of carpets had already become to some extent popular among the 
vanquished people. It was one of the wise accomplishments of Akbar 
to crystallize the custom, establish it as an industry, elevate it as an 
art. Following the system which has prevailed in the great cities of 
Persia, he set up looms in the palace, and installed weavers there. 
How thoroughly the Khorassan and Persian-Afghan influence domi- 
nated Indian art from that time forward is shown by the antique car- 
pets of Lahore, one of which Mr. Vincent Robinson has reproduced 
in his " Eastern Carpets." The central field is almost identical with 
that of the Herat fabrics heretofore described. The border presents 
a long, straight, graceful cone pattern, in a most ornamental shade 
of light blue, approaching turquoise, and so ornate in its workman- 
ship that it seems to belong to a shawl design rather than to a car- 
pet border. 

The example set by the Emperor was followed almost universally 
throughout India, not alone in the weaving, but in all the arts. 
Rulers of provinces and districts and even the village dignitaries 
maintained an extensive patronage. With such support weaving 
took on a sumptuary character, as it had in Persia. With these royal 
examples to inspire them, the weavers wrought ambitiously in their 
less pretentious pieces. The village and caste systems did much to 
foster effort and to perpetuate high standard. By the first of these 
each community was established as a unit, under control, generally, 
of one man whose function it was to assess and collect the town's 
share of the imperial tax ; the second, which attained in India such 
perfection of development as it has known nowhere else in the world, 
made the trades and professions hereditary. The weaver's son suc- 
ceeded to his father's station, and strove to emulate his accomplish- 
ments. In the weaving families each generation, reared to the art, 
studied to add new worth and beauty to the designs, the fundamental 

253 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

elements of which had been the proud possession of its forebears. 
There could be only one result of such a system. Mr. Robinson 
says : " The spread of this manufacture extended over the whole 
of India, and as late as the middle of this century was practised, very 
much in its integrity, from Kashmir to as far south as Tanjore." 

It is almost inexplicable that a system so strongly grounded, so 
literally and figuratively inwoven with the family and civil life of the 
people, could in so brief a time have been destroyed ; but such seems 
to have been the case. The apparent first cause was the desire of the 
Indian government to furnish occupation for its prisoners in jails 
throughout the empire, and incidentally to neutralize the expense of 
maintaining the corrective system. Brought thus into competition 
with prison labor, the caste weaver was undersold, and had no resource 
save to cheapen his product and increase its volume. The jail manu- 
facture was at first looked upon as a splendid invention, since the 
singular aptitude of the prisoners enabled them to master the weaving 
readily, and when they were herded together their work could be 
overseen and orders enforced. Originality in design was discounte- 
nanced, forbidden, and chemical dyes were introduced. 1 

The lack of wool had always been a drawback to carpet- weaving 
in parts of India. In fact, the only carpets made there prior to the 
Mohammedan domination were wholly of cotton, or cotton mixed 
with silk. The support of the nobles, who had no need to spare 
expense in securing materials, had for a long time overcome the diffi- 
culty, and wool was brought in quantities from the grazing countries 
to the north, as it is to some extent to-day. When the new system 
supplanted the old, cheaper materials were introduced. Hemp and 



1 " Take, for instance, such a common thing as the black dye of Kanchipurara, and the red dye 
of Madura in the Madras presidency, which was famous throughout the world. European black has 
taken the place of the one, and that rich russet red which delighted the eye of the painter is replaced 
by magenta." — Ceorgiana Kingscotc: " The Decline of Taste in Indian Art." 

254 



INDIA 

jute took the place of cotton in the foundations, and the general 
decadence of the native product was complete. In an article in The 
Nineteenth Century, in 1891, on "The Decline of Taste in Indian 
Art," Georgiana Kingscote, speaking of the spontaneous native indus- 
try, says : 

"At one time there were more than two hundred houses where 
there are now twos and threes, and the famished inhabitants cannot 
even afford to keep a stock of carpets on hand, and as soon as one is 
finished are only too ready to sell it, at a loss even, simply as a means 
of subsistence; and the trade is at such a low ebb that if you want an 
Indian carpet you must advance the money, and wait until they can 
get through it, as they cannot afford to employ many workers. 

"The coloring of the Indian carpets originally came from Persia, 
and these colors, especially reds and blues, were as beautiful as those 
of that country still are. Now, unfortunately, the revival of carpet 
manufacture is principally carried on in the jails, under English super- 
vision, and the patterns are decidedly English, and the texture thick 
like English pile, thus encouraging the loss of that extremely fine 
work peculiar to the Persian carpets. Here, again, magenta, being a 
cheap English color, plays a great part, and spoils the harmony of 
the coloring. One drop of water is enough to spoil the carpet by 
making the magenta in it run into the white ground. French and 
English machine-made carpets and Brussels carpets are invading 
India, and the carpet trade is sinking fast as, if not faster than, any 
other." 

The same verdict was pronounced at about the same time, and in 
a much more authoritative manner, by Mr. Robinson. After thirty- 
five years spent in actual endeavor to uphold and latterly to save the 
ancient art of carpet- weaving in India, he closes in this wise his review 
of the subject: "Every encouragement was thus afforded, and the 
way smoothed for Trade versus Art ; and notwithstanding all the pro- 

255 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

tests made by those who became aware of threatened dangers, the 
manufacture went on in the jails, and the art languished. It is now 
no exaggeration to say that in India, from the Himalayas to Cape 
Cormorin, no means exists for the fabrication of art carpets like those 
found in most of the places here enumerated, nor can the art element 
in this industry ever be resuscitated until means are found for restor- 
ing the conditions under which the originals were produced." 

It is a new and, it must be confessed, wholly commercial manu- 
facture that has sprung up in India on the ruins of the art industry 
which had its splendid beginnings with Akbar. Availing themselves 
of the fabulously cheap labor to be had without limit in India, the 
English, French, and latterly American houses have established there 
factories for the making of rugs according to their own conceits, or 
following in some sort the characteristic designs of Persia. Provisions 
of the law interfere with the importation of the prison-made fabrics to 
America, but the output of the prison looms at Lahore, Agra, Jabal- 
pur, Benares, and Bangalore has fairly flooded the English market 
for years, being sold for a price which defied all honest competition. 
Even there, however, it is likely the fabrics will be excluded before many 
years shall have passed. But that, it is plain, will not restore the art 

Two dealers in New York, both interested in the Indian manu- 
facture, have summarized the whole matter in statements made to the 
writer. The first said : " There is not a rug-making town in all India 
to-day where the native patterns are used." The second said: "An 
effort was made to introduce some new shades at Mirzapur ; but 
although careful search was made throughout all the district, not a 
dyer was found who knew how to dye pukka, — the Hindu term for 
the old vegetable dyes, — and dyers had to be brought from Amritsar 
to do the work." 1 



1 It is only fair to say that another well-known rug man, to whom these declarations were 
repeated, denied them vigorously. 

256 



INDIA 

And yet Mirzapur, up to 1850, was one of the greatest manufac- 
tories of art carpets in India. 

The bold offers made by certain India carpet concerns, princi- 
pally in Amritsar, of large monetary forfeits to any person who shall 
find evidences of aniline color in their fabrics, and, in fact, the personal 
declaration of American dealers interested financially in the Indian 
manufactures, lead inevitably to the conclusion that the use of vege- 
table dyes is being resumed, or, at any rate, that by some means 
greater stability is being sought in the coloring. 

In many respects, however, the methods of manufacture now pur- 
sued are identical with those in vogue in the prisons. The chief feat- 
ure of the prison system which recommended it for commercial pur- 
poses was that all the weavers employed upon a particular contract 
were herded together, where supervision was easy and obedience to 
orders imperative. Here, too, the personal equation was eliminated. 
Individuality in design was suppressed, an advantage which the con- 
tracting firms have never been able to obtain in dealing with the 
Turkish, Persian or Caucasian weavers, save in the three instances cited 
in the chapter on Persian carpets — Sultanabad, Kirman and Tabriz. 
In all the other weaving districts in the Mohammedan countries 
the weavers have stubbornly refused to work en masse, but weave 
upon looms reared in their own houses, where, free from super- 
intendence, they often exercise their own ingenuity, and give to the 
fabrics a touch now and then of the true Oriental character, which 
accords so ill with the demands of the Western firms. 

This lesson was learned from the jail system, and although in 
some towns of India home looms are retained, the weavers of the 
great carpet centres work in droves, within walls and under guard. 
They are searched when they quit the workshop, and upon the com- 
pletion of the carpet every atom of the wool remaining from its con- 
struction must be returned to the owners. Under the old system the 

257 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

workmen and workwomen kept these leavings, and used them in 
other and altogether different fabrics, to effect the variant note so 
potent in warding off ill luck. 

In India the women do no weaving. The great majority of the 
weavers are boys, ranging in age from six to fifteen years, and most 
of them under twelve. They are under the absolute sway of the 
native masters, a sort of padrones, and when, from one reason or 
another, the " boss weaver " leaves a factory, he takes his entire follow- 
ing with him. This is an altogether uncomfortable state of things 
for the firms carrying on the business, since in places like Amritsar 
the defection of a large body of these tiny toilers can cause incalculable 
inconvenience and delay. The maximum wage of one of these child 
weavers is about five cents a day. Skilled adults work by the thou- 
sand stitches, and a great day's earning is about twenty-five or thirty 
cents. 

What has been said in another chapter on the transportation of 
designs from one part of the Orient to another, and their adoption 
into other ornament systems, applies in its fullest force to India. 
Considering the illimitable conservatism of the Hindu, it is difficult 
to understand how the Mohammedan designs could have crowded out 
those of the earlier races, while the language, religion, and social cus- 
toms remain. All through the north of India the Persian forms were 
used almost exclusively, though taking on a rich ornamental char- 
acter which even in the most finished of the Persianized products sug- 
gested the native, half-barbarian splendor. In the south of India 
there were retained many of the old creations ; but even these were 
of the same ancient origin as the Persian, although altered by cen- 
turies of native Indian usage. They had been brought into India 
by Aryan invasion further back even than the time of Darius, and 
thus, after long separation, the currents of the primitive and univer- 
sal symbolism were again united. 

258 



INDIA 

The treatment in many of the modern India carpets is little more 
than a burlesque ; but some pieces made upon special orders preserve 
with comparative fidelity the details of the Persian rugs from which 
they are copied. In the weaving both the Sehna and Ghiordes knots 
are used, and in the cheap grades a simple twist, which is no knot at 
all, but merely a turning of the yarn around the warp, depending 
wholly upon the tension of the weft to hold it. It must have been 
rugs of such workmanship which prompted Sir George Birdwood to 
say in his " Industrial Arts of India," in 1884: "The foundation, as 
now scamped, is quite insufficient to carry the heavy pile which is a 
feature of this make, and is, moreover, so short in the staple as to be 
incapable of bearing the tension even of the process of manufacture. 
Jabalpur carpets often reach this country, which will not bear sweep- 
ing or even unpacking. I know of two which were shaken to pieces 
in the attempt to shake the dust out of them when first unpacked. 
The designs once had some local character, but have lost it during 
the last five years." 

There are among the Indian carpets of to-day, nevertheless, 
some fabrics which are stout, soundly made, quite well dyed, and, 
being copies of good spontaneous Persian designs, are meritorious in 
that regard. It is not hard to distinguish the wheat from the chaff. 
In selecting from among these carpets there is probably no rule other 
than of personal preference in design, supplemented by the general 
requirements as to material and texture, and the customary tests for 
solidity of color. 

Amritsar. — Reference has already been made to the natural 
qualification which tends to make Amritsar a home of carpet-weaving. 
Most of its water is of good quality, and it is near to the course of 
wool-supply. In addition it has within easy reach the Kashmir dis- 
trict, where skilful dyers and weavers became plentiful after the deca- 
dence of the shawl manufacture. It is, moreover, a centre of trade, 

259 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

and one of the chief stations on the Punjab railway. Thus its manu- 
factures find easy transportation to the coast. 

In a system so purely commercial as is the Indian carpet-making 
of to-day, all these are ample reasons for the general transfer of fac- 
tories from other parts of the empire to Amritsar. For a long time it 
was the custom of the Kashmir shawl-weavers to journey down to 
Amritsar to weave shawls during the winter months. In this manner 
the Kashmir methods were brought into vogue here. The manufac- 
ture of heavy carpets for the trade has outgrown the old industry. 
Many of the Kashmir customs have been abandoned, but one impor- 
tant feature still prevails. A rug, or pattern, is divided into sections, 
as many as there are weavers at work upon the looms, and in a book 
are written down in Kashmiri characters all the stitches in each sec- 
tion, with the colors, and the exact sequence in which they must be 
put in, from the beginning to the finishing of the rug. Each weaver 
has a number corresponding to that of the section upon which he 
is employed. It is the task of one boy to read off these stitches, day 
in and day out, through the making of many carpets. While he 
reads, the loom masters, each having three or sometimes four looms 
under their control, go about and inspect the work, for errors. When 
such are found the weavers are compelled to pull out all the faulty 
knots and replace them. There are probably five thousand men and 
boys employed in the carpet industry of Amritsar, counting wool- 
handlers, dyers and weavers, and the work of so many facile hands 
makes up a mighty carpet export. 

W. S. Caine, in his book on " Picturesque India," says: "Some 
of the finest carpets in India are woven at Amritsar. One dealer just 
inside the first gate, entered from the railway station and hotels, em- 
ploys from seven hundred to one thousand hands in carpet-weaving, 
at a wage of from three to six annas per day [nine to eighteen cents]. 
He works mainly for three or four great London firms, and I have 

260 






PLATE XXIV 






Plate XXIV. Samarkand 

10.5 x 7.2 

Loaned by Mr. William McLaren Bristol 

The old-time weavers of Samarkand made strenuous effort to attain the 
Persian profuseness in design, but as has been set forth in the text, were ham- 
pered by Chinese influence, which dictated the use of the heavy round or 
octagonal medallion in the field, and of the old Mongol religious emblems. 
The discovery of this old and in every way interesting carpet was a piece of 
good fortune. Here, it will be seen, the entire space in the field is covered with 
repetitions of the Chinese cloud band (compare Plate I), but the arrangement is 
in rows, like that of the vases in that purest of Persian designs, the old Kirman 
shown in Plate XVIII. Further concession to the Persian — a sign manual, in 
fact — is found in the minute pear figures thrown in at intervals throughout the 
ground, apparently without rhyme or reason. The Turkoman elements arc- 
plain here, too, in the broad, striped webbing at the ends, and the border de- 
signs, which are merely the tarantula and scorpion devices, with a suggestion 
of the tree. 



INDIA 

seen no worthier results in any of the carpet manufactories I have 
visited up and down India." 

The output of the Amritsar looms, therefore, is perhaps the best 
by which to judge the present-day carpet product of India. That 
part of it which is handled by American firms is probably the 
best which these great factories have to show, better, no doubt, 
by reason of the fact that the agents dealing directly with India can 
and do dictate concerning designs, colors and all the points of con- 
struction. But the whole system is distinctly commercial, and for the 
general stock the same patterns are produced in all grades, ranging 
from three knots by three to twelve by twelve, to suit the needs of the 
buyer. There is a corresponding variation in the quality of the dyes 
and the workmanship, and some of the staple stuff would discredit the 
tepee of a Piute. The designs are taken chiefly from the Persian, 
and the Feraghan seems to be a favorite. Others are copied in the 
most impossible of colors from huge, glaring designs of English car- 
pets. Many small mats are made, which suffer sadly by contrast with 
even the poorest of the yesteklik which come from Anatolia. 

In the lower grades, whether of mats or larger pieces, there is 
seldom any effort at artistic finishing of the ends, an enormously 
heavy and badly bungled overcasting taking the place of the attrac- 
tive fringes which adorn the ends of the Turkish, Persian and Cau- 
casian rugs. It must be said for Amritsar, however, that since it 
became the factory of the better class of whole carpets for American 
firms, the concerns dealing in the wretched low-grade fabrics just re- 
ferred to have transferred their manufacture to other towns, where 
labor can be had more cheaply ; so that Amritsar probably merits 
the good word spoken by Mr. Caine. 

The best grade of carpets made here are what are known as 
"pushmina," from the fact that they are made of pas him or pus hint, 
the fine wool found next to the skin of the sheep. Some of these, in 

261 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

which closeness of texture is aimed at, have a silk warp. The stitches 
are sometimes as many as fourteen by fourteen. Raw-silk rugs are 
also made in Amritsar, but the manufacture has not met with great 
success. 

Kashmir. — Since we are dealing with floor-coverings, there is 
little to be said about Kashmir. Its fame was won in the manufac- 
ture of shawls, and although some carpets were made there of old, 
they showed in colors, materials, patterns and workmanship, even at 
the best period of their development, the effect of propinquity to the 
shawl industry. Sir George Bird wood describes one of the older 
examples as having "grounds of pale yellow and rose color, and floral 
patterns in half-tones of a variety of colors. The borders were weak 
and not distinct from the centre, but the coloring and general effect 
were serene and pleasing." 

" Its peculiarities," Mr. Robinson says, " were in some degree due 
to the use of shawl wool for the fabrics, and to a method of arranging 
designs quite its own. The width of the borders was nearly as exag- 
gerated as in those of Tanjore in the south of India, but the filling 
of the design differed from them by being minute in proportion to 
the space occupied. The scale of coloring also distinguished it from 
other manufactures and was probably the effect of chemical properties 
in the water." 

Of the modern fabrics of Kashmir, which, though they are quite 
different, still retain some peculiarities which had their birth in the 
shawl-making, nothing can be said which has not been said of other 
varieties of Indian goods. The general run of the staple product is 
poor, but the carpets turned out to order for English and American 
firms are of a better style and design, and where the selection of 
materials is made by the Western agents, and the contractors are fast 
bound by stipulation, fairly good fabrics are produced. 

Mirzapur. — There is probably no city in India whose carpet in- 

262 



INDIA 

dustry has known a more extraordinary series of ups and downs than 
has that of Mirzapur. Situated on the south bank of the Ganges, it 
is in the centre of the richest and most cultured part of India. It is 
near neighbor to Benares and Allahabad ; it is on the railway, and is 
but half as far as Amritsar from Calcutta. It is fairly populous, has 
extensive manufactures of brasswork, and is a still famous mart for 
cotton and grain. The Hindu element is strong here, and the city 
presents, on the river- front, some remarkable Hindu temples. This 
atmosphere had undoubtedly much to do with the designs of the old 
Mirzapur carpets, which, before English commercial manipulation 
began, showed a pronounced Hindu character in distinction from the 
Persian forms. Instead of any manner of floral diapers, they displayed 
medallions, within which all the floral forms were traced. 

It was only a little while after the introduction of the Mirzapur 
carpets into England that English firms began to lower the quality 
of them. Efforts to restore it scored desultory success, and as late as 
1867 the fabrics maintained a fairly good reputation. The jail sys- 
tem, coupled with precipitate trading, finally finished them. The 
texture became coarse, the materials poor, the colors of such sort as 
has been indicated in the introductory part of this chapter. 

The present development is doing something to redeem the in- 
dustry, but merely to the end of securing a satisfactory workshop, and 
probably not with any view of again producing the fabrics as they 
were before the great era of decadence began. The modern Mirza- 
pur carpets show round, floral figures, with dark red as the prevailing 
color, usually arranged in rows upon a pale yellow or cream-colored 
ground. Dark red, almost maroon, prevails also in the borders, 
which carry some arrangement of the pear pattern resembling the 
main borders of the Khorassans, or else a repetition of the floral forms 
found in the body of the rug, with a connecting vine. 

The wool for the present-day Mirzapur carpets comes chiefly 

263 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

from the western part of Rajputana and is of an inferior sort. The 
great endeavor on the part of both native and foreign firms engaged 
in the manufacture has been to secure wool which would give better 
results when wrought, and yet come within the " near " rates they 
were willing to pay in their desire to keep the fabrics down to " com- 
petition prices," and at the same time widen the margin of profit. 
One American agent tried bringing wool from Beluchistan, but the 
local dyers could do nothing with it. They treat the wool with lime, 
too, to give it brilliancy, which is only adding another ill. 

Lahore. — The British capital of the Punjab is one of the places 
where prison weaving has been done. The central jail there has held 
as many as two thousand prisoners, and in addition there are district 
and female jails, a thug jail and a " school of industry," in all of 
which both woollen and cotton carpets have been made. The manu- 
facture of the old-fashioned fabrics held on there with much tenacity, 
nevertheless, considering the proximity of so much that tended to 
demoralize them. 

The Lahore carpets were among the first of the Indian products 
to attract commercial attention in England, and the East India Com- 
pany's vessels took a great number of the fabrics home to be sold. 
Records of the company indicate that even in the seventeenth cen- 
tury, while the impulse starting from Akbar must still have been 
strong, extremely good carpets were by no means so plenty as may 
be supposed. One agent, writing in 161 7, reports the purchase at 
Agra of thirty fine Lahore carpets. In a letter written only a short 
time afterward, he says: " It requires a long time to get well-chosen 
carpets. True Lahore carpets are not so suddenly to be gotten." 
This declaration seems to have been in answer to some complaint 
that he had not sent larger consignments, and indicates how quickly 
the carpets caught the British fancy. 

Despite the debauchery of the product by the jail system, a cer- 

264 



INDIA 

tain amount of weaving, following tolerably well the old models, 
seems to have been done in Lahore down to a recent time. Even 
within the past two or three years a few examples of considerable 
age have been offered for sale in New York, and taken quickly even 
at the high price demanded. 

Weaving outside the jails has been quite extensively revived 
here lately, and although the fabrics are in no wise equal to the old 
ones, some of them, woven in the Persian fashion, are fairly good. 
The prevailing design is a Persian pear pattern for the fields, 
arranged like that of the Herat or Saraband, and a border in which 
the Greek elements are predominant. There are seldom more than 
forty knots to the square inch. 

Agra. — Agra, whither travellers journey to gaze upon the beauty 
of the Taj Mahal, has its carpet industry too — an industry the early his- 
tory of which Mr. Robinson recounts in this wise : " The Indus valley 
had always obtained rugs from the neighboring Afghans on the north 
and the Beluchee tribes on the south of the river ; but as the Moham- 
medan power became established in central India, the necessity was 
found for local manufacture of carpets too large to be carried by 
camels or even by elephants. Thus Agra, Jhansi and other places 
east became seats of the manufacture." 

In point of size and thickness the Agra carpets of to-day are fit 
successors to those of the olden time. They are of enormous weight 
and solidity. The designs are similar to those common in the time of 
Mongol ascendancy, the cone forms playing an important part. For 
a long time after the establishment of the weaving in jails and the 
industrial school, the carpets were nearly all in a monotone of two 
colors, green or blue, with pale cream color. More recently the use 
of browns and purples was begun. The central field in the later rugs 
presents an angular form of some Mohammedan device, and the bor- 
der, very often, the transverse arrangement of the pear shape spoken 

265 



ORIENTAL RUGS 

of as being a feature of certain Khorassans. In the jails, where the 
manufacture is still carried on, cotton carpets are made, thick and 
heavy like the woollen ones. 

Allahabad. — This beautiful and thriving city, at the junction of 
the Ganges and Jumna, is a Hindu stronghold, but it is the centre as 
well of the most thoroughly British influence in the realm. Although 
not one of the most important weaving cities, there are exported from 
it a great many carpets, similar in almost every respect to those of 
Agra. They range in texture from forty-eight to possibly one hun- 
dred knots to the square inch. 

Masulipatam. — It was here that the first British settlement was 
established in 1620. Even then the city, though small, was renowned 
for its fabrics. From fine, closely woven, beautifully designed rugs, 
they have, under the sweat-shop system, taken on the cheap character 
of much of the Indian output. These rugs were at one time widely 
sold in the United States, but have lost caste since the large importa- 
tion of other and better fabrics began. 

Jaipur or Jeypore. — This, the capital of the state of the same 
name, is the principal commercial centre of Rajputana. It stands in 
a plain, surrounded on all sides save one by hills which the ancient 
rulers made sites of remarkable fortifications. Under British domin- 
ion the city has progressed greatly. It has fine paved streets, gas 
lighting, hospitals, dispensaries, almshouses and schools, and a famous 
observatory, built in 1728. The carpets woven here copy the designs 
found chiefly in the rugs of eastern and middle Persia. They nearly 
always present the cypress-tree, and also many animal forms, laid 
upon ground of dark red, blue or ivory white. The borders have a 
swaying-vine pattern, with the customary floral adjuncts. 

Miscellaneous. — In Jabalpur, Ahmedabad, Ellore, Poonah, 
Delhi, Bijapur, Madras and Jamu, all seats at one time of considera- 
ble carpet manufacture, fabrics are still turned out, but they are not 

266 



INDIA 

imported in any great number into this country. Velvet carpets from 
Benares, Patna and Murshidabad once had some fame. Tanjore, 
Warangal, Multan and Hyderabad all produced remarkable rugs 
under the old dispensation, but little or no trace of their industry 
remains. 



267 



Knots to Inch ,J\ N H OTS p ™. 



8 to 12 9 to 15 

6 to 9 



9 to 14. 
7 to 9. 
7 to 9. 



6 to 9 

12 to 20 

Warp-threads 

to the inch. 

Ant. 7 to 9 

Mod. 5 to 7 



>6to 8 



6 to 8. 

!6to 8. 



6 to 7. 



12 to 15 
8 to 10 
8 to 10 

7 to 10 

6 to 12 



8 to 11 
6 to 8 



7 to 9 

8 to 9 
7 to 8 

6 to 7 



Knots to Inch Knots to 
Horizontal. Inch Weft. 



7 to 


9 .... 


8 to 10 


5 to 
7 to 
4 to 


7 ... 

10 

6 


7 to 8 

7 tu IO 

4 to 6 


6 to 

7 to 


7 

10 


7 to 9 
9 to 12 


9 to 




10 to 12 


4 to 
8 to 


8 


4 to 9 

8 to 12 


4 to 
6 to 


7 

8 


4 to 7 
6 to 8 


4 to 


9 


4 to 9 


8 to 




IO to 12 


10 to 


12 


IO to 12 


6 to 


9 


6 to 9 


5 to 


9 


5 to TO 






CO 



TEXTILE TABLES. 



CAUCASIAN. 



Daghestan . 
Derbend. . . 



Kabistan 



Tchechen or "Tzitzi.", 
Tcherkess or Circassian 
Karabagh 



Ghiordes. . . 
Ghiordes. . . 



Ghiordes 



Ghiordes. , 
Ghiordes.. 
Ghiordes. . 



Soumak . 



Shirvan . 



Kazak . 
Mosul . 



Usually gray wool , 

Brown wool or goat's-hair 



Wool or cotton . 



Wool ; sometimes dyed.j Fine wool short 



Wool. 
Usually cotton. 



Usually fine white wool. . . Wool . 

Wool Wool . 

Stout, wool Wool. 



Wool. 



Turkman or Genghis. 
Mosul Kurds 



Ghiordes. 



Ghiordes. . 
Ghiordes. . 



I Ghiordes. . 
Ghiordes. . . 



Wool ; white in antiques ; 
brown, gray, and some- 
times particolored in 
moderns 



Wool. 



Usually wool; sometimes 
cotton 



Dark wool or goat's-hair. 
Dark wool or goat's-hair. 



White wool in antiques ; 
wool or cotton in 
moderns 



Fine wool ; rather long. . . 
Fine wool r usually short. 



Fine wool ; medium length. 
Fine wool ; rather short . . . 
Wool ; medium length .... 



Nap ; wool . 



Wool; often four threads Wool; long in Hats; medi- 
aftereach row of knots. urn in Takhta Kapon. . . . 



Usually wool; sometimes 
cotton 



Gray or brown wool 
Gray or brown wool . . . 



Wool, filik or camel's hair 

Fine selected wool in old 
pieces ; coarser quality in 
moderns 

Wool ; rather long 



Narrow selvage ; usually of extra yarns, colored. . . 
Usually overcast 

Overcast ; selvaged with extra cotton threads, or 
1 ' body finish " 

Usually selvage of added yarns 

Selvage; usually of wool, sometimes cotton, added. 
No rule ; overcast, selvaged or ' ' body finish " . . . . 

No rule 

No rule \ 

Wide selvage, sometimes of added yarns ; vai 
in weight 

Usually overcast 

Usually selvaged with extra yarns of brown wool. 

Overcast ; or an added selvage, with color changed 
every few inches after Kurdish fashion 



Narrow web ; compact knotted fringe 

Long, heavy knotted fringe ; in some a wide Turko- 
man web 

Narrow web ; ends loose if cotton, knotted fringe if 
wool 

Narrow web; knotted fringe 

Narrow web ; knotted fringe (small ) 

One end usually has web turned back; other has fringe 
or loops of the warp 

Usually loose, heavy knotted fringe < 

Narrow web and long coarse fringe in moderns ; finer 
finish in antiques 

Heavy fringe on one end; other sometimes has web 
and thick selvage outside it, or web turned back 
and hemmed 

Narrow web ; fringe if warp is wool ; stout selvage 
if cotton 

( Web, sometimes of Turkoman width, and shaggy 
( fringe 

Warp woven in thick selvage; outside of that tri- 
angular mats and rope's-end fringe. 



Knots to Inch 
Horizontal. 

8 to 1 2 , 

6 to 9 , 

9 to 14 

7 to 9 

7 to 9 

6 to 9 

12 to 20 

Warp- threads 

to the inch. 

Ant. 7 to 9. .. 
Mod. 5 to 7. .. 

) b to 8 



6 to 7. 



Knots to 
Inch. PER- 
PENDICULAR. 



9 to 15 

7 to 10 

12 to 15 

8 to 10 
8 to 10 

7 to 10 

>6 to 12 



8 to 11 

(. to s 



8 to g 

7 to 8 



6 to 7 



TURKISH 



Konieh | Ghiordes . 

Kir-Shehr Ghiordes . 

Kaba-Karaman Ghiordes . . Coarse wool. 

Y ur uk Ghiordes . . Brown wool or goat s-nair 



( Antique, fine wool 

1 Modern, coarse wool 

( particolored 

Wool 



Anatolian or Caesarians , 
Ghiordes Antique 



Ghiordes Modern . 



Ghiordes . . U sually wool. 

Ghiordes . . Fine wool cotton, or silk 



Kulah Antique. 
Kulah Modern. 

Demirdji 

Oushak 



uergamo . 
Ladik 



Ak-Hissar and other Mo- 
hairs 

Meles or Carian 



Ghiordes . 

Ghiordes. 
Ghiordes . . 
Ghiordes . 
Ghiordes . 

Ghiordes . 

Ghiordes . 



Ghiordes . 
Ghiordes . 



Fine wool 



Wool 

Wool 

Wool or cotton . . 
Brown wool or goat's 



■hair 



Fine selected wool, medium. 



Usually wool 

Cotton, linen, or some- 
times single strand 
wool 



Coarse wcol. 



Fine wool 

Coarse wool 

Coarse wool 

Wool 

Fine wool; usually dyed 
Very fine wod 



Coarse wool . 
Wool 



Usually cotton.. 

Fine wool 

Cotton or wool 
Coarse wool . . . 
Wool 



Wool; usually dyed... 
Wool; usually dyed... 



Coarse wool , . . 
Cotton or wool. 



Fine wooI,rather long 

Fine woolylong 

Coarse wod ; medium or rather long 
Fine wool sometimes mixed with 

goat's flece; long 

Fine wool; long 



Very fine siected wool, short ; some 
small fijores in cotton 

Wool, variiog lengths in different 
grades ., 

Selected wK>l. short 

Wool, Ion* 

Wool, meiuui 

Wool, variag lengths in different 
grades .)■■■■ 

Fine wooltnedh 



length 

Fine seleijjL wo °li rather short. . 



Mohair ; soirett™ 65 
Wool, ratheis'ort 



nixed with wool 



Narrow selvage (added) 

No rule 

Selvage (sometimes added) 

No rule 

Heavy and peculiar goat's-hair selvage 

Heavy extra selvage 

Silk selvage (added) 

No rule 

Usually narrow colored selvage (added) 

No rule 

No rule 

No rule - 

Usually wide selvage 

Wide selvage (added) 

Overcast ; sometimes heavy selvage 

Selvage ; added if warp cotton, of weft thread 
if wool 



Web and selvage ; sometimes fringe . 

Usually web and loose warp 

Usually colored web ; short fringe. . . 
No rule 



Narrow brown web and short fringe or braids . 
Colored web, warps made into fringe or braid. . 



Sewed silk fringe, or narrow web and loose warp , 

Web, usually, with loose warp ends 

Narrow web f usually yellow ; warp ends loose 

No rule , 

No rule 

No rule 

Broad red web, usually striped or figured ; short 

fringe ; some have narrow selvage 

Broad red web, short fringe; some have narrow 

selvage 

Narrow web ; warp loose 

Narrow web ; loose fringe of colored warp 



7 to 9. 

5 to 7 
7 to 10 . 
4 to 6 . 

6,0 7. 
7 to 10 . 



9 to 1 2 . 

4 to 8. 
8 to 10 . 
4 to 7. 
6 to 8 . 

4 to 9. 
8 to 10 . 

10 to 12 . 
6 to 9 . 

5 to 9 - 



7 to 8 
7 to 10 
4 to 6 

7 to 9 
9 to 12 



4 to 9 
X to 12 
4 to 7 
6 to S 

4 to •> 

10 tO 12 
10 tO 12 

6 to 9 

5 to 10 



Tabriz. . 



Herez ' 



> ends loose 



\ but some- 
Kara Dape other sel- 
Sehna. . . 



Kurdistai 



I sometimes 



Kermans 



J sometimes 



Souj-Bul 



" Sarakh 

usually sel 

Koultuk s and loose 



: and loose 



Keraghan 



Saruk 
Saraband 



Selvile 



Khorasss >ose 
Meshhed 
Herat . . 



nd ; twisted 



Hamadai? warp-ends 
" Joosha 
shagha 
Kirman 



Shiraz . . 
Niris , . 



; warp-ends 
:ked selvage 



knotted 

knotted. . . . 



Knots to Inch. 
Horizontal. 



I Knots to 
1 Inch. Per- 
pendicular. 



5 to 12 7 to 14 

8 to 11 j 9 to 12 

10 to 20 ! 10 to 20 



8 to 11. 
8 to 12. 



to 11 



8 to 12 



7 to 10 1 8 to 10 



7 to 9. 



7 to 8. 

5 to 12. 
9 to 20. 

8 to 12. 
7 to 9. 



7 to 9. 

8 to 11. 
10 to 20. 



6 to 12. 

6 to 8. 
8 to 1 1 . 
8 to 11. 

8 to 10. 



6 to 14 
9 to 20 

9 to 14 

8 to 10 



9 to 11 
9 to 12 
10 to 20 



7 to 14 

7 to 9 
9 to 13 
9 to II 

9 to 11 



Includexture, though the designs have a wider range. 



" Bokhar 
Yomud. . 



s very wide ; 
e fringe of 



Knots to Inch. 
Horizontal. 



I Knots to 
Inch. Per- 
pendicular. 



" Afghan, 
Samarkanwarp makes 



BeluchisU 
Yarkand i. 



8 to 20 
7 to 12 

6 to 9. 

6 to 8. 
5 to 12. 
5 to 7. 



» to 20 

9 to 14 
7 to 10 



5 to 7 

6 to 10 
5 to 7 



'vP 

of 



3- 
CO 



TEXTILE TABLES. 



Tabriz. 
Herez ' 



Kara Dagh 

Sehna 

Kurdistan proper . 



Kermanshah 

"Sarakhs" or Bijar. .. 



Koultuk or Zenjan. 
Souj-Bulak 



Ghiordes. , 



Ghiordes, 
rarely Sehna. 



Ghiordes. . 
Sehna 
Ghiordes. . 



Ghiordes. . . 

Ghiordes. . . 

Ghiordes. . . 
Ghiordes... 



Feraghan . 



Saruk 
Saraband . 



Hamadan 3 

"Jooshaghan" or Dju- 

shaghan 

Kirman 

Shiraz j 

Niris 



Khorassan proper., 

Meshhed , 

Herat 



Sehn 



Sehna . 

Sehna . 



Cotton ; sometimes linen 
or silk 



Usually cotton. 



Wool 

Cotton, linen, or silk . 
White or gray wool. . . 



Wool or cotton . 
Wool 



Cotton; sometimes wool . 
Wool 



CottOD ; sometimes linen. 
Cotton 



Ghiordes . . . 

Ghiordes 

Sehna 

Ghiordes, ( 
or Sehna ] 

Ghiordes 



Sehna ...... 

Ghiordes 

Ghiordes, 
rarely Sehna. 



Wool; sometimes gray. . 



Cotton. 



Wool 

Cotton 

Wool; sometimes goat's- 
hair in coarse moderns. 



Wool. 



Cotton 

Wool or cotton . 



Wool or cotton . 



PERSIAN. 



Cotton, single-strand 
wool, Hnen 



Cotton, sometimes brown 
wool 



Wool . 



Cotton, single-strand 
wool, linen 

Wool ; also extra filling 
between warp-threads. 

Wool, natural brown or 
dyed 



Wool. 
Wool . 



Cotton ; rarely wool. . . . 

Cotton; sometimes linen. 
Cotton ; sometimes col- 
ored 

Wool ; usually colored . . 



Cotton or wool . 



Selected wool, short. 



Wool ; quality and length vary 
with grades 



Wool, medium. 



Selected wool, very short. 
Wool, medium 



Wool, medium 

Wool, rather long; thick and 
upright ; hard surface 



Wool, medium 

Wool, medium, doubled; pile 
thick and upright 



Wool . 
Wool . 



Wool . 
Wool . 



Wool . 



Wool ; short in antiques, me- 
dium in moderns 

Selected wool, short 



Selected wool, short.. 
Wool, medium 



Overcast, wool or silk ; rarely selvage. 



Usually overcast . 
Usually selvaged. 



Overcast 

Overcast, usually with brown wool . 

Overcast, usually with brown wool . 



Overcast 

Overcast or selvaged. 



Overcast . 
Overcast . 



Wool, camel's-hair or filik, 

sometimes mixed 

Selected wool, medium 

Selected wool, short 



Wool, medium. 



Wool, medium. 

Wool, medium. 

Wool, medium. 

Wool, medium. 



Overcast . 
Overcast . 



Overcast . . . 
Overcast . . . 



Overcast, sometimes 
tufted ■ 



Narrow web; sometimes striped ; warp ends loose. 



Narrow web; warp ends usually loose, but some- 
times knotted 

One end selvaged and turned back ; the other sel- 
vaged and fringed 



Narrow web ; warp ends usually loose 

Narrow web, knotted fringe ; one end sometimes 
selvaged or turned and hemmed 2 



5 to 12 7 to 14 



Knots to 
Inch. Per- 
pendicular. 



8 to II. , 
10 to 20. 



Narrow web, knotted fringe ; one end sometimes 
selvaged or turned and hemmed 



web, knotted fringe ; one end usually sel- 
d loose 



One end plain selvage ; others selvagi 
ends 



One end plain selvage ; other selvage and loose 
ends 



Narrow web, warp-ends loose . 
Narrow web, warp-ends loose. 



riegated and heavily 



Overcast , 
Overcast . 



Overcast , 



Narrow web, warp-ends loose 

Narrow web and knotted fringe one end ; twisted 
warp-loops on other 

One end usually selvaged ; other loose warp-ends 

or knotted fringe 

Narrow web, loose warp-ends ■ 

Narrow web, loose warp-ends 



7 to io. . 
7 to 9- ■ 

7 to 8. . 

5 to 12., 
9 to 20., 

8 to 12.. 
7 to 9. 



7 to 9.. 

8 to 11.. 



Web ; usually peculiar checked selvage ; warp-ends 
may be loosely tied 

Web; usually short fringe of warp ; checked selvage 

frequent o !° TT 

Very narrow web, or none; warp-ends loose 

Narrow web, fringe of warp, sometimes knotted. 

Narrow web, fringe of warp, sometimes knotted. 



8 to 11., 
8 to 10. . 



9 to 12 
10 to 20 

8 to 11 

8 to 12 

8 to 10 
8 to 10 



6 to 14 
9 to 20 



9 to 14 
8 to 10 



9 to 11 
9 to 12 
10 to 20 



7 to 9 
9 to 13 
9 to 11 



9 to ) 



1 Includes Bakhshis, Hei 



1 See reference in description to embroidered line across the web. 



> Includes also other rugs of contributory districts, Kara-Geuz, Oustri-Nan, Burujird 

TURKOMAN. 



Bibik-abad. which show only slight variation in texture, though the designs have a wider range. 



"Bokhara" orTekke.. 
Yomud 



" Afghan " or Bokhara , 
Samarkand 



Beluchistan 

Yarkand and Kashgar. 



Sehna . . . 
Sehna or 
Ghiordes. 

Sehna . . . 

Sehna . . . 



Sehna . . 
Sehna . . 



Brownish wool or goat's- 

hair 

Goat's-hair or dark wool . . 

Coarse cotton or silk ; oc- 
casionally wool 



Wool 

Coarse cotton. 



Wool or goat's-hair. . 

Black or gray wool 

goat's-hair 



Cotton or wool ; in most 
old pieces four threads 
after each knot-row . 



Wool 

Cotton, as in Samarkands 



Fine wool, short; sometimes 
goat's-fleece 

Fine wool, medium 



Fine wool, or goat's-fleece, me- 
dium or long 



Wool, or sometimes wool and 
raw silk, medium 



Wool, or goat's-fleece; medium 
Wool, rather long; some silk. . 



Usually overcast 

Selvage, often checked in yarns of two colors. 

Usually heavy selvage of goat's-hair, added. . . 



Usually narrow selvage, added ; overcasting in 

moderns ; " ■ * " ' 

Narrow selvage; overcasting in some moderns. 
Selvage, two threads of warp, added yarn 



Knots to 
Inch, Per- 
pendicular. 



Web— white, red, or striped ; sometimes very wide ; 

in some plain piled surface ; fringe ■ 

Usually wide, reddish web; long, loose fringe ot 

warp-yarns 

Wide colored web or plain pile; loose warp makes 
shaggy fringe 

Narrow web or stout selvage, and fringe 

Usualjy wide web, patterned 

Warp ends loose 




INDEX 



Afghan-Bokhara rugs, description, 235-238 

Afghanistan, native name for Khorassan, 
225; nomad rugs of, 237 ; rugs, see Bo- 
khara rugs ; wool-growing in, 34 

Agassiz, on Greek key pattern, quoted, 70 

Agra rugs, 265 

Ahmedabad rugs, 266 

Aidin, " Smyrna" rugs made in, 132 

Aiyin rugs, 225 

Akbar, Emperor, 252 

Ak-Hissar mohair rugs, 39; description, 

»57 

Alizarin, decline in value of, 27 

Allahabad rugs, 266 

Amritsar, 257 ; rugs, description, 259 

Anatolia, method of carding wool in, 38 

Anatolian, rugs, 35 ; brown shades in, 54 ; 
description, 142; mats (Yestiklik), de- 
scription, 95, 141-143 

Angora goat's-hair, 34, 39 

Anilines. See Dyes 

Animal forms in Bokhara rugs, 228. 232; 
in Genghis rugs, 130; in Meshhed rugs, 
224 

Apple design (Sihbih), 76 

Arabic influence, in Djushaghan rugs, 
205 ; in Kir-Sbehr rugs, 139 

Ardebil, mosque carpet of, 171 

Arras, French factories at, 19 



Arshin, Persian unit of measurement, 24 
Asia Minor, antique rugs of, copied in 
Tabriz, 172; mode of cleansing wool in, 

36 
Assyria, rug designs in, 15 
Asur-Banipal, 15 
Aubusson, factories at, 19 
Azerbijan, 166; rugs, description, 167 

B 

Babylonian designs. See Assyria 

Babylonica peristromata, 16 

Baghdad, fabrics of, 15 

Bakhshis rugs, description, 175 

Baluk-Hissar, fair at, 22 

Bandhor rugs, origin of name, 6 

Barber-pole stripe, in Farsistan rugs, no; 
in Kabistan rugs, no; in Konieh rugs, 
137; in Laristan rugs, no; in Mosul 
rugs, 128; in Yomud rugs, no, 234 

Barter, system of, 23 

Basra. See Bassorah 

Bassorah, school of painting, 12 

Beaumont, A. de, " Les Arts Decoratifs en 
Orient et en France," quoted : on the su- 
periority of antique art products, 14 

Beauvais, factories at, 19 

Bellew, Dr., " From the Indus to the Ti- 
gris," quoted: on Khorassan rugs, 220; 
on shrine at Meshhed, 223 



269 



INDEX 



Beluchistan rugs, description, 238-241 ; re- 
ciprocal trefoil design in, 119 

Benjamin, S. G. W., " Persia and the Per- 
sians," quoted : on lost art of making 
Persian blue, 53 

Berdelik (hangings), description, 96 

Bergamo rugs, description, 154-157 ; mode 
of selling, 133 

Beshir rugs, 235 

Bibikabad rugs, 201 

Bible, allusion to carpets in, 17 

Bijapur rugs, 266 

Bijar rugs. See Sarakhs 

" Bilooz" rugs, 231 

Bird forms, in Bokhara rugs, 228; in Gen- 
ghis rugs, 130; in Ispahan rugs, 202; 
in Kazak rugs, 124; in Tabriz rugs, 172 ; 
in Teheran rugs, 202 

Birdwood, Sir George, " Industrial Arts of 
India," quoted : on decadence of India 
rugs, 259; on irregularities of design, 
cited, 76; on Kashmir rugs, quoted, 
262; on rugs as works of art, cited, 14; 
on origin of the pear design, quoted, 69 ; 
on Swastika, quoted, 70; on symbolism, 
in designs, quoted, 56 ; on tree forms 
quoted, 66 

Bishop, Mrs. I. B., "Journeys in Persia 
and Kurdistan," quoted : on deteriora- 
tion of Persian rugs, 7 ; on Persian 
rugs, quoted, 173; on silk rugs, quoted, 

97 
Bokhara khilims, 250 
Bokhara prayer rugs, goat's-fleece used in, 

40 
Bokhara rugs, description, 228-233 
Bokhara, trade name for Tekke rugs, 226 
Brazil wood, 53 

Broussa, " Smyrna " rugs made in, 132 
Brugsch, " Mythology," quoted : symbolic 

significance of color, 56 
Buckthorn (rhamnus), 54 
Burujird rugs, 201 
Byzantine designs, 31 



Byzantium, art unaffected by Roman con- 
quest, 18 

C 

Caesarea, rug manufactories in, 143 

Caesarean rugs. See Anatolian 

Caine, W. S., " Picturesque India," quoted : 

on Amritsar rugs, 260 
Cairo, " Mecca" rugs sold in, 217 
Camel's-hair, 40 ; in Hamadan rugs, 199 
Campeche wood, 53 
Carian rugs. See Meles 
Carpets. See Rugs 
Caste system in India, 253 
Caucasian, designs in Anatolian mats, 142 ; 

influence in Persian Kurdistan rugs, 185 ; 

in Shiraz rugs, 213; in Yomud rugs, 234 ; 

rugs, description, 102; mode of selling, 

133 

Chaldea, 15, 17 

Chemical dyes. See Dyes, aniline 

Chichi. See Tzitzi 

China, commercial relations with western 
Asia, 23 

Chinese, art, Mohammedan in essence, 64 ; 
designs, see Fretted designs ; religious em- 
blems, 12; influence in Yarkand rugs, 
244; in Samarkand rugs, 241 

Christian, emblems, absence of, 30 ; weavers, 

3i. iS° 
Churchill, S. A. T., on Persian weavers, 

quoted, 163 
Circassian rugs. See Tcherkess 
Clarke, C. P., on carpet industry, quoted, 1 
Coal-tar in dyes, 44 
Cochineal. See Kermes 
Colbert, looms established by, 19 
Collins, E. T., " In the Kingdom of the 
Shah," quoted : on aniline dyes, 49 ; on 

tests for quality of a carpet, quoted, 89 
Color, symbolic significance of, 56. See 

also Dyes 
Cone pattern. See Pear 
Constantinople, rug names in, 5, 98 



27a 



INDEX 



Cordova, rug manufacture in, 18, 155 
Cotton, foundation for rugs, 84 
Crown-jewel pattern. See Pear 

D 

Daghestan, designs in Transcaucasian rugs, 
116; proper, rugs, description, 104-107; 
compared with Kabistan, 109, 1 1 1 ; com- 
pared with Karabagh, 117, 119; com- 
pared with Mosul, 128; compared with 
Shirvan, 122; description, 103; Kaba- 
Karaman sold as, 140 ; marketed in 
Shemakha, 120 

Delhi rugs, 266 

Demirdji rugs, description, 151 

Denotovich, A. C, on Ladik rugs, quoted, 

Derbend rugs, compared with Kabistan, 
109; description, 107; Kaba-Karaman 
sold as, 140 

Designs, absence of Christian emblems, 30; 
antiquity of, 13 ; Apple (Sihbih), 76 ; 
barber-pole, no, 128, 137, 234; cloud 
band, 1 14 ; consistency in, 61 ; decadence 
of, 58; derivation of, 62, 65; diaper, 15, 
67, 166, 183, 200; floral, 96, 117, 122, 
128, 129, 137, 145, 149, 169, 179, 180, 
188, 202, 209, 219, 242; floral, deriva- 
tion of, 17 ; distribution and modification, 
4) 63, 73 ; for weavers, 86 ; fretted, 64, 
69, 241, 244; geometrical, 15, 17, 63, 
104, 108, 120, 124, 128, 129, 240; Guli 
Hinnai, 75, 195 ; Herati (fish), 67, 183, 
191, 194, 203, 221, 224, 237 ; India, 258; 
irregularities in, 56, 76 ; Italian influence 
on, 19, 59; knop-and-flower, 66; latch- 
hook, 104, 106, 108, 125, 128, 142, 158, 
234 ; leopard and deer, 12 ; lotus, 15, 17, 
62,64,65, 67, 130, 169; made by women, 
28; Mina Khani, 75, 166; Mir, 197; 
nomad, consistency of, 60 ; not a means 
of identification, 45 ; painted, 86 ; pal- 
mette, 65, 74, 130 ; pear, 63, 68, 109, 



no, 112, 128, 130, 147, 158, 183, 188, 
198, 203, 213, 221, 223, 225; period of 
climax in, 58 ; reciprocal trefoil, 112,1 18, 
119, 125, 128; registration of, 78; re- 
ligious significance of, 13, 21, 80; repro- 
duction of, 85 ; rosette, 65, 74 ; sacred 
tree between two guardian beasts, 16; 
Sardar, 75; Shah Abbas, 74, 166; star, 
108, 109, 128; supplied Dy Western 
firms, 78, 163 ; symbolism of, 56, 69 ; 
tarantula, 125; tree, 66, 96, 112, 115, 
147,203; turunj'i,'j6; woven in sections, 
86 

Diaper design, fish pattern used as, 15; 
in Hamadan rugs, 200 ; in Persian rugs, 
166 ; in Sehna rugs, 183 ; in Djushaghan 
rugs, 205; medallions in, 166 

Djijims, 15. Sc-e also Bokhara khilims 

Djushaghan rugs, 205 

Dyeing, cost of, 46 

Dyers, 43 ; hereditary calling of, 44 

Dyes, aniline, 7,27,44,48,49, 75, 152, 165; 
destroyed in Persia, 162; in Anatolian 
rugs, 143; in Ghiordes moderns, 148; 
in Kazaks, 124; in Kurdistans, 181; 
in Meles, 158; in Persians, 165; in 
Saruks, 204. ; in Smyrnas, 144 

Dyes, composition of, 47, 52, 53; deca- 
dence of Indian, 254; effect on yarn, 47; 
mordants for, 48; in Tabriz ~ug», 172; 
Indian, 256; Novi Varos, 31; solvent 
properties of water for mixing, 44, 45, 

E 

" Eastern Carpets," Robinson, Vincent, 34, 

39, 119, 238, 243 
" Eastern Persia," Goldsmid, Sir F. J., 

quoted, 208 
Edict of Nantes, 20 
Education, 27 
Egypt, mysteries of, 13; rug-making in, 13, 

IS- *7 
Eleanor of Castile, 20 



INDEX 



Elizabetpol, 130 

Ellore rugs, 266 

England, rug manufacture in, 20 

Enile rugs, texture, 152 

European machinery, 25, 38 

F 

Fairs, 22 

Farsistan wool, 34 

Feraghan rugs, 67, 68, 75 ; description, 194- 
196; likeness to Sehna, 184; loose knot- 
ting in moderns, 89 ; restoration of, 8 ; 
sold as Khorassans, 222 

Figures. See Designs 

Filik, 40, 127 ; in Hamadan rugs, 199 

Fish pattern. See Herat 

Flame pattern. See Pear 

Floral designs, 17, 63; in Genghis rugs, 
129; in Ghiordes antiques, 145; in Kara- 
baghs, 117 ; in Kara Dagh, 180; in Ker- 
manshahs, 188; in Khorassans, 219; in 
Kirmans, 202, 209 ; in Koniehs, 127; in 
Kulah prayer rugs, 149; in Mosuls, 128; 
in Samarkands, 242; in Serapis, 179; in 
Shirvan antiques, 122; in Tabriz, 169; 
in turbehlik, 96 

Flower of the henna. .Sif* Guli Hinnai. 

Fretted designs, 64, 69, 70 ; in Samarkand 
rugs, 241 ; in Yarkand rugs, 244 

" From the Indus to the Tigris," Bellew, 
220, 223 

G 

Gallnuts, 54 

Genghis rugs, compared with Mosul Kur- 
dish, 131; description, 129 

Geometrical designs, 15, 17, 63; in Da- 
ghestan rugs, 104; in Derbends, 108; in 
Genghis, 129; in Kazaks, 124; in Mo- 
suls, 128; in Shirvans, 121 ; in Soumaks, 
120; in Turkoman, 240 

Ghiordes, Demirdji weavers in, 151 j grade 
names for modern Koniehs, 138 

Ghiordes rugs, antique, border designs, 64 ; 
compared with Konieh, 137 ; compared 



with Ladik, 155; description, 144-148; 

even trimming of, 1 1 1 ; Kulah designs in, 

150; used as picture-frames, 145 
Ghiordes rugs, modern, 6, 8 ; description, 

148; loose knotting, 89; substituted for 

Demirdji, 151 
Goat's-hair, 39; foundation for rugs, 83; 

in Ak-Hissar rugs, 157; in Kulah rugs, 

»5> '50 

Gobelins, factories of the, 19 

Goldsmid, Sir F. J., on Kirman rugs, quoted, 
208 

Goodyear, Professor, on lotus origin of or- 
nament forms, cited, 62, 64 

Gorevan rugs, description, 176-179 

Grade names in Asia Minor rugs, 148 

Granada, rugs made in, 20 

Grave carpets. See Turbehlik 

Grazing districts, 43 

Greek cross, 30 

Greek designs, borrowed from Egypt and 
Assyria, 17 

Greek key. See Fretted designs 

Guendje rugs. See Genghis 

Guli Hinnai design, 7 5; in Feraghan rugs, 195 

Gulistan rugs, texture, 153 

Guyard, S., on Oriental painting, cited, 12 

H 

Hamadan rugs, 40, 78; Azerbijan sold as, 
167 ; description, 199-201 , Herez known 
as, 175 ; patterns for Genghis, 130 

Hammamlik (bath rug), 94 

" Handbook of Anilines," Reiman, 44 

Hehbehlik (saddle-bags), description, 95 ; 
Shiraz, 214 

Hemp, foundation for rugs, 84 

Herat, borders in Ispahan rugs, 203 ; in 
Sarakhs, 191 ; designs in Afghanistan 
rugs, 237; in Feraghans, 194; in Kho- 
rassans, 22; in Sehnas, 184 

Herat rugs, 63, 67; description, 224, 225 ; 
medallions in, 166 



272 



INDEX 



Herek-keui rugs, 174 

Herez rugs, Bakhshis sold as, 177 ; descrip- 
tion, 175 ; dyes in, 177 ; shipped as Gore- 
vans, 177 

Herodotus, 17 

Hindustanieh rugs, 151 

Homer, 17 

I 

" In the Kingdom of the Shah," Collins, 
E. T., 49, 89 

India, caste system in, 253 ; jail system in, 
254; village system in, 253 

India rugs, 63; description, 252-255; un- 
classified, 10 1 

Indigo, 53 

" Industrial Arts of India," Sir G. Bird- 
wood, 69 

Inely. See Enile 

Inscriptions in Tabriz rugs, 172 

Iran. See Persia 

Iran rugs, mistaken for Kurdistans, 187 

Iskender Khan Coroyantz, on the origin of 
the pear design, cited, 69 

Ispahan rugs, description, 201-205 

J 

Jabalpur, 266 

Jaipur, 266 

James I. of England, 20 

Jamu, 266 

Jeypore. See Jaipur 

Jones, Owen, on Chinese art, cited, 64; 

on the origin of designs, quoted, 65 
Jooshaghan. See Djushaghan 
"Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan," Mrs. 

Bishop, 7, 97, 173 



K 



Kaba-Karaman rugs, 121 ; description, 139 

Kabistan rugs, 68; adherence to old 

models, 88 ; close trimming, 87 ; close 

knotting, 89 ; compared with Mosul, 



127, 128; description, 108-111; mar- 
keted in Shemakha, 120 
Karabagh rugs, called Shemakinski, 121; 
compared with Shirvan, 121 ; degenera- 
tion of design, 122; description, 117- 
119; Kaba-Karamans sold as, 140; 
model for Kazaks, 124 ; sold as Genghis, 

Kara Dagh rugs, description, 180 

Kara-Geuz rugs, 200 

Karamania tribes, 140 

Karmanian, 206 

Kashgar rugs, 64 ; description, 243-245 

Kashmir (Indian) rugs, 262 

" Kashmir " rugs. See Soumak 

Kayin rugs. See Aiyin rugs 

Kazak, method of weaving, 9 1 ; odjaklik, 

designs in, 114 
Kazak rugs, compared with Tcherkess, 1 14 ; 

description, 123-125; similarity to Der- 

bend, 107 
Kermanshah, 187 
Kermanshah rugs, description, 187-189; 

Tabriz rugs known as, 168 
Kermes, 52 

Khilims, 20; description, 248-251 
Khiva-Bokhara rugs, 230 
Khiva rugs, Afghanistan-Bokhara sold as, 

236 
Khorassan rugs, description, 218-222; 

likeness to Kirmans, 210 
Kinari (runners), 6; in Kurdistan, 182 
Kingscote, Georgiana, " Decline of Taste 

in Indian Art," quoted : on Indian dyes, 

254 

Kirmanieh fabrics, 206 

Kirman (Oushak), 152 

Kirman rugs, description, 207-212; at- 
tributed to Kermanshah, 187 ; close trim- 
ming, 87 ; close knotting, 89 ; imitated 
in Turkey, 174; Italian influence in de- 
signs, 19; model for Tabriz, 168; sold 
as Teheran and Ispahan, 202 

Kirman weavers, in Tabriz, 170 



273 



INDEX 



Kir-Shehr, 135 

Kir-Shehr rugs, description, 138 

Knop-and-flower design, 66 

Knot, close, 89 ; Ghiordes, 87 ; loose, 88 ; 
Sehna, 87 

Knots, beating of, 91 

Konieh rugs, compared with Kir-Shehr, 
139; description, 135-139 

Koran, 27, 30; quotations from, 204 

Koultuk rugs, description, 192 

Kozan rugs, 131 

Kuba, rugs made in, 108 

Kulah mohair rugs, 39, 150; likeness to 
Ak-Hissar mohairs, 157 

Kulah rugs, antique, border stripes, 147 ; 
compared with Ghiordes, 148 ; compared 
with Konieh, 135, 137; compared with 
Ladik, 155; description, 149; even clip- 
ping, in 

Kulah rugs, modern, description, 150; 
loose knotting, 89 

Kurdistan khilims, 248 

Kurdistan rugs, Eastern, 165 ; description, 
181-187; different from Mosul Kurds; 
sold in Hamadan, 167 

Kurdistan rugs (Mosul), clumsy weaving 
of, 91; description, 130; latch-hook de- 
signs in, 142 

Kutayah, rugs made in, 153 



Ladik rugs, compared with Konieh, 135; 
description, 154-157 

Lahore rugs, 263 

Laodicea. See Ladik 

Laristan, English trade name, 214 

Laristan rugs, barber-pole stripe in, no 

" L'Art de l'Asie Centrale," N. Simakoff, 
125, 228 

Latch-hook design, in Anatolian mats, 142 ; 
in Daghestans, 104, 106 ; in Derbends, 
108; in Kazaks, 125; in Meles, 158; in 
Turkomans, 104; in Yomuds, 234 



Leopard and deer, 12 

Leroy Beaulieu, on Turkish imitation of 
Persian designs, 134 

" Les Arts Decoratifs en Orient et en 
France," Beaumont, A. de, 14 

Life idea in design, 66 

Linen, foundation for rugs, 84 

Looms, 81, 83 

Lotus, all ornament forms derived from, 
62, 64; distribution of, 65; design bor- 
rowed from Egypt and Assyria, 17; in 
Genghis rugs, 

Louis XIV., 19 

" Lule " rugs, 3, 



in Tabriz, 169 
quality, 182; Bijars 



the true, li 



M 



MacFarlane, C. C, "Turkey and its Des- 
tiny," quoted : on silk-manufacturing in 
Broussa, 174; on Yuruk people, 140 

Madder, 52, 54 

Madras rugs, 266 

Makatlik (runners), 6; description, 95 

Makri. See Meles 

Malakan. See Malgaran 

Malgaran rugs, description, 115; trade 
name for Samarkand, 243 

Marriage customs, 25 

Masulipatam, 266 

Maya temples, stone carvings on, 13, 17 

Mecca, 21 ; pilgrimage to, 216; rugs, de- 
scription, 215-218 

Medallions, in Feraghan rugs, 195; in 
Gorevans, 177; in Kirmans, 209; i:i 
modern Persian, 166; in Sarakhs, 189; 
in Serapis, 179; in Tabriz, 168 

Meles rugs, description, 158 

Melesso. See Milassa 

Merv khilims, 20, 248, 249 

Meshhed, 21 ; rugs, description, 223, 224; 
shrine, 222 

Middleton, Professor J. H.,on Assyrian wall 
reliefs, 15; on Phoenician and archaic 
Greek designs, 17 



274 



INDEX 



Milassa, market for Meles rugs, 158 

Mills, steam, 38 

Mina Khani designs, 75, 166 

Mir design in Saraband rugs, 197 

Mirzapur rugs, description, 262-264 

Mohammedan restrictions on animate 

forms in art, 1 1 
Mongol influence in Niris rugs, 215 
Mordants, 48 
Morocco, 64 

Mortlake, Surrey, looms at, 20 
Mosul, 126 

Mosul Kurdish rugs, 130 
Mosul rugs, 3, 40, 63; description, 127- 

129; why classed as Caucasian, 103 

N 

Namazlik. See Prayer rugs 
Neolithic Age, pottery designs, 17 
Newton, C. T., on Greek key pattern, 

cited, 69 
Niris rugs, description, 214 
Nishapur, 219 

Nomad tribes of the Caucasus, 1 12 
Norseland. See Scandinavia 
Novi Varos rugs, 30 







Odjaklik (hearth rug), 29; description, 95 ; 

Kazak, 114; Konieh, 136 
Ornament forms, derivation of, 62 
Oushak, dyers, 43 ; grade names used for 

modern Koniehs, 138 
Oushak rugs, 35 ; compared with big 

Anatolians, 143; description, 152; loose 

knotting, 89 



Oustri-Nan, 201 



Pashim, 36 

Patterns. See Designs 

Pear, 63; in Genghis rugs, 130; in Ghior- 
des, 147 ; in Herat, 225 ; in Kabistan, 
109; in Kermanshah, 188; in Meles, 
158; in Meshhed, 223; in Mosul, 128; 
in Persian, 109; in Saraband, 109, 197; 
in Sehna, 183; in Shiraz, 109, 213; in 
Teheran, 203 ; origin, 68 

Peloton rouge. See Filik 

Pergamos. See Bergamo 

Persia, animal figures in designs, 12, 15; 
deterioration of rugs in, 7 ; bazaars, 7 ; 
berries, 53 ; blue in Kurdistan rugs, 
181; lost art of making blue, 53; in- 
fluence on other rug-making countries, 60 

" Persia and the Persians," Benjamin, S. G. 

W-,53 

Persian khilims (doru), 250 

Persian knot. See Knot, Sehna 

Persian provinces, best rugs made in, 161, 
163, 165 

Persian rugs, 160-166, 173 ; manner of sell- 
ing, 133 ; reciprocal trefoil design in, 1 19 

" Pick," Turkish unit of measurement, 24, 

133 
Pile, substitution for primitive web, 82 ; 

trimming of, 89 
Pliny, 16, 93 
Polish carpets, 119 
Poona, 266 
Prayer rugs, 15, 36; Asia Minor, 145; 

Bokhara, 40, 230; Daghestan, 106; 

description, 94 ; Ghiordes, 88; compared 

with Kulah, 149; description, 145-147; 

Kaba-Karaman, 140; Kulah, 137, 155; 

description, 149; Tcherkess, description, 

114 ; tree forms in, 115, 147 
Pushmina rugs, 261 



Palermo, rug manufacture in twelfth cen- 
tury, 19 
Palm. See Pear 
Parsa, 212 



Raphael, Persian students under, 19 
Rectus, on Kirman rugs, quoted, 208 



275 



INDEX 



Reiman, " Handbook of Anilines," quoted : 
on aniline dyes, 44 

" River loop." See Pear 

Robinson, Vincent, " Eastern Carpets," 
quoted : on Afghan rugs, 238 ; on car- 
pet-weaving in India, 255 ; on Kashmir 
rugs, 262; on Polish carpets, 119; on 
quality of wool, 34, 39 ; on Yarkand 
rugs, 243 

Rochella, 53 

Rock, Dr., on tree tradition of Middle 
Asia, quoted, 66 

Rosette, 65, 74 

Roulez. See " Lule " 

" Royal Bokhara," 233 

Rugs, artificial antiques, 9 ; manner of 
selling in Asia Minor, 133 ; bibliographi- 
cal material wanting, 1 ; classification, 63, 
98; cost of, 10; deterioration of, 6,9, 
161; double-faced, 93; duties on, 10; 
Egyptian origin, 14; finishing of sides 
and ends, 92 ; foundation materials of, 
84 ; identification, 4 ; importation, 2, 8 ; 
increase in popularity, 2 ; nomad, 15, 60 ; 
nomenclature, 5, 6, 98, 161 ; parts of, 73 ; 
prices in Persia, 165 ; scarcity of an- 
tique, 8; specific uses of, 94; table of 
classification, 100; tests of quality, 89; 
textile tables, reference to, 101 ; use in 
Orient, 11, 13, 17, 78 

Rug manufactories, 101; at Oushak, 152; 
at Sultanabad, 163, 196; at Tabriz, 162, 
170 

Rug manufacture, in England, 20; in 
France, 19; in India, 256, 261 ; in Italy, 
19; in Persia, 160; in Spain, 18; how 
controlled, 24; in United States, 2, 132 

Russian influence, in designs of Kara- 
baghs, 1 1 8 



Sacred tree, Assyrian, 16 

Saffron, 54; use in Mosul rugs, 127 



Saiga, fleece used in Tartar rugs, 39 

Samarkand rugs, 64; description, 241- 
243; known as " Malgaran," 1 15 

Saraband rugs, 68 ; description, 197-199; 
pear design in, 109 

Saracenic influence in Bergamo rugs, 155 

Saracens, 18 

Sarakhs, rugs, description, 189-192; me- 
dallions in, 168 

Sarandaz, 6 

Sarawan. See Saraband 

Sardar design, 75 

Sarpuz, 6 

Saruk rugs, close knotting of, 89; de- 
scription, 201—205 

Savalans, name for Sultanabad rugs, 196 

Saw-tooth, reciprocal design, in Beshir 
ru g s » 2 35J in Kazak rugs, 125 

Scale-makers, 86 

Scandinavia, dyeing and weaving in, 18 

Sedjadeh (floor-coverings), 15, 88, 136; 
Bergamo, 155; description, 95 ; Kaba- 
Karaman, 140; Konieh, 136; Kerman- 
shah, 188 

Sehna khilims, 248 

Sehna rugs, 67; close clipping, 87, no; 
close knotting, 89 ; description, 182-184; 
manner of weaving, 91; medallion in, 
166 

Selvage, 92 

Selvile rugs, 198 

Serapi rugs, close knotting, 89; descrip- 
tion, 179 

Shah Abbas, 19 

Shah Abbas design, 74, 166 

Shah of Persia, edict against anilines, 48- 
51, 162 

Shawls, 36, 39, 68, 208, 256 

Sheep's-blood, 52 

Shemakha, 120 

Shemakinski rugs, 121 

Shiitesect, 117; in Azerbijan, 166; in Kara 
Dagh, 180; shrine of, at Meshhed, 223; 
use of animal figures by, 12 

276 



INDEX 



Shiraz khilims, 248 

Shiraz rugs, 68, 122 ; description, 212-214; 
Shirvan rugs sold as, 122; sold as 
" Meccas," 217 

Shirvan rugs, description, 121-123; Kaba- 
Karamans sold as, 140; latch-hook de- 
signs in, 105 ; likeness to Soumak rags, 
120; marketed in Shemakha, 120; sold 
as Shiraz, 214 

Silk, 40, 174; foundation for rugs, 83; 
rags, 96 ; weaving in, 86 

Simakoff, N., " L'Art de l'Asie Centrale," 
quoted : on the tarantula design in Turk- 
oman rags, 125; on Turkoman designs, 
228 

Smyrna, rug market, 132; rug names in, 



Tabriz rugs, close knotting, 89 ; close 
trimming, 87; description, 168-174; 
Italian influence in, 19; made in imita- 
tion of Sehnas, 184 

Tamur, 241 

Tartar rugs, 40; how sold, 133 

Tchechen rags. See Tzitzi 

Tcherkess rugs, description, 113-116 

Teheran rugs, description, 201-205 

Tekke influence in Yomud rugs, 233 

Tekke khilims, 248 

Tekke rugs, 40 ; even clipping, no. See 
also Bokhara 

Tereh. See Designs 

Textile tables, 15, 101 

Tokmak rugs, description, 138 



132; rugs, description, 143; rugs Transcaucasia, rags of, 116; preparation 



sent to Cairo from, 14 
Souj-Bulak rugs, 192 

Soumak rugs, description, 119-121; de- 
signs similar to Shirvan, 122 ; latch-hook 

design in. 105 
Spain, rug manufacture in, 18 
Spinning, 35, 38 
Springer, L. A., on rag-weaving in Novi 

Varos, quoted, 30 
Star, emblem, 128 
St. John, 0. B., on Kirman rugs, quoted, 

209 
Strabo, 17 

Sulphide of mercury, used in dyeing, 53 
Sultanabad, 8, 163; European designers 

in, 163; rugs, description, 196 
Sumak, root, 54 
Sunnite doctrine, 12 
Svastika. See Swastika 
Swastika, 70-72; in Daghestan rugs, 106; 

in antique Ghiordes prayer rugs, 147 ; 

in Yarkand rugs, 244 



Tabriz, manner of weaving, 91 ; rag manu- 
facture in, 162 ; rug market in, 167 



of wool in, 36 
Tree forms, 66 ; in Ispahan rugs, 203 ; in 

Kurdistans, 185; in Mosuls, 127; in 

prayer rugs, 147; in Tcherkess, 115; 

in turbehlik, 96; in Tzitzi, 112 
Trefoil, reciprocal design, in Karabagh 

rugs, 118; in Mosuls, 128; in Tzitzis, 1 1 2 
Triclinaria, 78 

Turbehlik (grave carpet), description, 96 
Turkestan rugs, close trimming, 87 
"Turkey and its Destiny," C. C. Mac- 

Farlane, 140, 174 
Turkey, manner of entertaining guests in, 29 
Turkish knot. See Knot, Ghiordes 
Turkish language used in Persia, 165 
Turkish rugs, antique, 134; description, 

132-135; made upon orders, 133 
Turkoman, designs in Persian rugs, 165; 

tribes, 129; influence in Beluchistan 

rugs, 240; rugs, 226, 227 
Turkoman rugs, latch-hook in, 104; recip- 
rocal trefoil in, 119. 
Turkman rags. See Genghis rugs 
Turk's distrust of European travelers, 28 
Turmeric, 54 
Turunji design, 76 
Tyrian purple, 42 



277 



INDEX 



" Tzitzi " rugs, 30, 63 ; description of, 111— 

113; marketed in Shemakha, 120 
Tzoul, 251 

U 

United States, manufacture of rugs in, 2, 8 ; 
as a market for rugs, 1 



Vambery, cited, 25 

Venice, rug manufacture in, 19 



Wilson, Thomas, on the origin of the Swas- 
tika, quoted, 70-72 

Women, as designers, 25 ; as weavers, 25, 
163, 178; in Christian settlements, 31; 
social conditions, 25 

Wool, Afghan, exported to Europe, 34 ; 
Anatolian, 35 ; combing of lambs for fine, 
35 ; Farsistan, 34 ; foundation for rugs, 
83 ; preparation, 36 ; quality required for 
rugs, 35 ; scarcity in India, 254; Spanish, 
34, 35 ; superiority of Eastern, 34 ; Trans- 
caucasian, 116; Uzbek Tartar, 39 



W 



Warp, arrangement on looms, 82 ; dyed at 
the ends, 84; -fringe, 92; in antique 
mgs, 83 ; silk, 83 

Water, solvent quality, essential in washing 
wool, 37; in Angora, 138; in Demirdji, 
151; in Oushak, 153; in mixing dyes, 
44. 45 J supply for dyes, 45 

Weavers, Armenian, 143 

Weavers, boy, in Azerbijan, 167 ; in India, 
258; in Kirman, 170, 209; in Tabriz, 170; 
profession hereditary in India, 253, 257; 
Karabagh, 117; guild of, 25; nomad, 
25,60; Persian, 163; superiority of East- 
ern, 30, 143; superstitions of, 92 ; Turkish, 
133; wages of, 24, 134 

Weaving, 80 ; ancient and modern methods 
compared, 14; Assyrian, 16; in Kulah 
done by men, 150; done by women, 25 ; 
in Herez, 178; in Indian jails, 5, 254, 
256; method of, 83; process of 82-87, 
89, 93 ; tools for, 86 



Yaprak rug (Oushak), 152, 153 

Yaprakli, fair held at, 22 

Yarkand rugs, 64 ; description, 243-245 ; 

tree forms in, 66 
Yarn, purchase of, 39 ; spinning of, 38 ; 

supply for weaving, 85 ; treated with 

lime, 47 
Yesteklik (Konieh), 136 ; description, 95. 

See also Anatolian mats 
Yomud rugs, 40 ; barber-pole stripe in, 

no; description, 233-235; latch-hook 

design in, 105 
Yourdes. See Ghiordes 
Yucatan, 13, 70 

Yule, on Afghan wool, cited, 34 
Yuruk people, 26, 140 
Yuruk rugs, description, 140 



Zenjan rugs, rg2 

Zoroastrians, pear pattern traced to, 68 



273 



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